ilii

HANDBOLND
AT THE

L'MXERSITV OF
TORONTO PRESS

ENGLISH

VIEN OF SCIENCE

EDITED BY

J. REYNOLDS GREEN, D.Sc.

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE
Edited by J. Reynolds Green, D.Sc.

HERBERT SPENCER. By
J. Arthur Thomson

JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. By
T. E. Thorpe

GEORGE BENTHAM. By
B. Davdon Jackson

SIR WILLIAM FLOWER.
By R. Lydekker

JOHN DALTON. By J. P.

MiLLINGTON

THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY
By J. R. AiNswoRTH Davis

riKITO in \V. A. MANSKM. AN1> ('■

/•^n frnMier

THOMAS H. HUXLEY

J. R. AINSWORTH DAVIS, M.A.

Trinity College, Cambridge

PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY
J. M. DENT & CO., AND IN NEW
YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO.

1907

31

HI AS

All Rights Reser-ved

V

DEC 2 71965

\

CS3957

" To smite all humbugs, however big ; to give a nobler
tone to science ; to set an example of abstinence from
petty personal controversies, and of toleration for every-
thing but lying ; to be indifferent as to whether the
work is recognised as mine or not, so long as it is done : —
are these my aims ? i860 will show.

' Willst du dir ein hiibsch Leben zimmern,
Musst dich ans Vergangene nicht bekummern ;
Und ware dir auch was Verloren,
Musst immer thun wie neugeboren.
Was jeder Tag will, sollst du fragen ;
Was jeder Tag will, wird er sagen.
Musst dich an eigenen Thun ergotzen ;
Was andere thun, das wirst du schatzen.
Besonders keinen Menschen hassen
■ Und das Ubrige Gott uberlassen.' " [Goethe.]

(Last entry in T. H. Huxley's Private Journal^
December 31, 1856. Life, i, p. 151.)

PREFACE

An attempt has been made in this short biography to
bring into prominence Huxley's scientific work, though
much of it was of so specialized a nature as to make
a full presentment to other than professed zoologists
practically impossible. It has been necessary to incur a
large debt to Mr. Leonard Huxley's admirable Life and
Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley^ the chief source of
information, and this is gratefully acknowledged.
Reference has been made to the first edition, in two
volumes (1900), the abbreviation "Life" being em-
ployed. In dealing with the published works, the
Memorial Edition of the Scientific Memoirs (Sci. Mem.)
and the nine volumes of Collected Essays (Coll. Essays)
have been used wherever possible, as being most
convenient.

J. R. AINSWORTH DAVIS.

Aberystwyth, December 1906,

vu

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING [1825-45] ... I

CHAPTER II

EXPERIENCES AS A NAVAL SURGEON ON THE *' RATTLE-
SNAKE " [1846-50] 6

CHAPTER III
SUCCESSES AND FAILURE [1850-4] • . . . . 1$

CHAPTER IV
BEGINNING OF PROFESSORIAL WORK IN LONDON [l 854-8] 24

CHAPTER V

EARLY WORK ON FOSSILS AND BACKBONED ANIMALS.

MUSEUM ARRANGEMENT [l 856-8] •• . . . 34

CHAPTER VI
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES [1859] ..... 42

CHAPTER VII
THE DEFENCE OF DARWIN [1860] . . . . 50

CHAPTER VIII

DISSEMINATION AND SUPPORT OF EVOLUTIONARY

DOCTRINES [1861-2] ...... 58

ix

X CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

PAGE
man's place in nature ETHNOLOGY VIEWS ON

EDUCATION [1863-6]. ..... 72

CHAPTER X

BIRDS AND REPTILES PROTOPLASM AGNOSTICISM

[1867-69] .' 85

CHAPTER XI
OFFICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE WORK [1870-71] . . 98

CHAPTER XII

EGYPT LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY

PRACTICAL BIOLOGY [1872-75] . . . . I £4

CHAPTER XIII
VISIT TO AMERICA [1876-77] ..... I28

CHAPTER XIV

HARVEY AND HUME CRAYFISHES DUBLIN AND

CAMBRIDGE DOCTORATES [l 878-79] ' . . . I42

CHAPTER XV
PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY [1880-83] . . 1^6

CHAPTER XVI

BREAKDOWN AND RETIREMENT CRITICAL THEOLOGY

[1884-86] .174

CHAPTER XVII

TECHNICAL EDUCATION CONTROVERSIAL WRITINGS

[1887] 189

CONIENTS xi

CHAPTER XVIII

PAGE
DEFENCE OF AGNOSTICISM [l 888- 1 889] •. . , 20I

CHAPTER XIX

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY MORE CRITICAL THEOLOGY

[189O-1891] 211

CHAPTER XX
CLOSING YEARS [1892-1895] ..... 226

CHAPTER XXI

CHARACTER AND POSITION AMONG CONTEMPORARIES . 242

APPENDIX 255

INDEX 281

Thomas Henry Huxley

CHAPTER I

EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING [l 825-45].

Thomas Henry Huxley was born at Ealing on May 4,
1825, his father, George Huxley, being senior master
in the well-known semi-public school of which Dr.
Nicholas was then the head. Under the older name of
Hodesleia the family can be traced back in Cheshire to
the time of Richard I., but there is nothing in its annals
foreshadowing the extraordinary eminence attained during
the last half of the nineteenth century by its best known
representative. So far as our information goes, Huxley
was decidedly a "sport" — as he himself described the
great Newton — a concrete illustration of the biological
fact that variations of large amount may from time to
time occur.

To the first volume of his Collected Essays, issued in
1893, Huxley prefixed a short Autobiography, originally
written for another purpose, in which the bulk of his
physical and mental characteristics are ascribed to inheri-
tance from his mother. As to the former, he was tall,
dark, and rather spare, with a commanding presence,
and a striking though not handsome countenance, chiefly
remarkable for breadth of forehead, prominence of chin,
and a profusion of long straight hair. Huxley's most
salient mental characteristics were absolute sincerity and

A

2 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

straightforwardness, unrivalled powers of criticism and
generalization, and an equally remarkable faculty of rapid
intuition, of which last he says : " If my time were to
come over again, there is nothing I would less will-
ingly part with than my inheritance of mother wit." To
these must be added, as supposed endowments from the
paternal side, a sufficiently hot temper, and a vast
tenacity of purpose, " which unfriendly observers some-
times call obstinacy," but without which he could never
have persisted in the upward climb to distinction which
in its earlier stages often necessitated — to use his own
phrase — "hanging on by the eyelids." From his father
was inherited, too, the artistic power which rendered
such signal service to his scientific work, and which
made his lightning blackboard sketches during lecture
both the despair and delight of his pupils. His artistic
faculties also included an intense appreciation of music,
which his strenuous life enabled him all too infrequently
to gratify, as well as very strong literary tastes.

Had Huxley been the eldest child, he might perhaps
have become an " infant phenomenon," but as the seventh,
this stunting experience, fortunately for science and the
world at large was spared him. His experience of
" unreformed public school-life," between the ages of
eight and ten, leaves little that is pleasant to record, the
memory of a successful fight being the only illuminating
spot.

In 1835 his father returned to the original home at
Coventry, to become manager of a savings bank, and
from this time on the boy's systematic school education
seems practically to have come to an end. But this was
far more than compensated by his passion for reading,
and friendships contracted with older persons. For a
boy of twelve to read — and appreciate — Hutton's Geology,

EARLY LIFE AND TRAINING 3

the forerunner of Lyell's Principles, seems sufficiently
remarkable, but that he should, a little later, master
Hamilton's Logic, is no less than astounding.

To this period we must refer the inception of Huxley's
lifelong interest in philosophy, his ever manifest desire
to get behind the facts, to reach bed-rock so far as possible.
As a result of his association with his brother-in-law. Dr.
Cooke, he now acquired his first direct interest in
anatomy, and, most unfortunately, contracted blood-
poisoning at a post-mortem examination, which dates the
origin of digestive troubles that severely handicapped his
entire career.

Among the works read by Huxley during his early
teens were several of Carlyle's, and there can be no
doubt that these exerted a profound influence upon his
character, strengthening his natural tendency to despise
all shams and humbugs, and to entertain high ideals of
duty. It would also seem that they were of inestimable
service in another respect, leading the young student to
commence the study of German, a much neglected lan-
guage in those days.

He also very early laid the foundation of a thorough
knowledge of French and Italian. In later years his
linguistic attainments were not only of the greatest ser-
vice to him in the prosecution of his researches, but his
example has effected a complete metamorphosis in the
attitude of serious workers in the natural history sciences.
Before Huxley's time the results of foreign research
were often ignored or neglected. He first inaugurated
the now universal custom of making bibliographical
references and lists as complete as possible, whereby
much overlapping and waste of energy have been averted.

Many if not most boys in their teens have some idea
of what they would like to be, and Huxley was no

4 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

exception to the rule. We read in his Autobiography as
follows : —

*' As I grew older my great desire was to be a mechanical
engineer, but the fates were against this, and, while very young,
I commenced the study of medicine under a medical brother-in-
law. ... I am not sure that I have not all along been a sort of
mechanical engineer in part'ibus hifidelium. . . . The only part
of my professional course which really and deeply interested me
was physiology, which is the mechanical engineering of living
machines . . . what I cared for was the architectural and
engineering part of the business, i.e., natural history, the working
out the wonderful unity of plan in the thousands and thousands
of diverse living constructions, and the modifications of similar
apparatuses to serve diverse ends " (Coll. Kssays, i, pp. 6-7).

In January, 184 1, he went to Rotherhithe, and com-
menced his medical studies by becoming assistant to Dr.
Chandler. He now for the first time came into contact
with the very poor, and to this period we may refer the
beginning of that marked interest in the working-classes,
which afterwards bore fruit in his contributions to
schemes for the improvement of elementary education,
and in his numerous lectures to working men.

Somewhat later on, the young student of medicine
was apprenticed to his brother-in-law, J. G. Scott, a
doctor in North London, the husband of his eldest and
favourite sister Lizzie, and took his first step towards
graduation by beginning to prepare for the matriculation
examination of London University, attending lectures at
Sydenham College. His class successes were consider-
able, and included a silver medal for botany, given by
the Apothecaries' Society, the winning of which, he
afterwards declared, gave him more pleasure than the
award of the Royal Society's Medal years later. We
learn from an old diary kept during these years that in
addition to examination studies and the pursuit of Ger-

FIRST RESEARCH PAPER 5

man, he read the Piysio/ogy of the eminent Berlin professor,
Johannes Miiller, whose epoch-making comparative work
in natural history he afterwards continued and extended
with such brilliant success.

October i, 1842, was an important date in the life
of young Huxley, for, together with his brother James,
he began his medical course at Charing Cross Hospital as
a Free Scholar. Wharton Jones, the lecturer on physio-
logy, undoubtedly made the most marked impression
upon him, partly in virtue of his subject, but still more
on account of his personality. Huxley's own opinion of
himself as a man and as a student, at this epoch, was
sufficiently pessimistic, and we may well allow our-
selves to discount it altogether. The feature that
most impressed his fellow-students was his extraordinary
energy, one result of which was his first contribution to
science, in the form of a paper entitled, " On a Hitherto
Undescribed Structure in the Human Hair-sheath,"
published in the London Medical Gazette for July 1 845
(Sci. Mem., i, i, p. i). The structure in question is
still known as "Huxley's layer," and in the paper we
find that the German literature is dealt with in character-
istic fashion. It is given to but few medical students
to make even small additions to the sum of scientific
knowledge.

He passed through his student's course with marked
distinction, taking a first prize in chemistry, as well as
one in anatomy and physiology. For the two latter
subjects he was awarded a gold medal, his place being
second in honours in the M.B. examination of the
University of London, 1 845.

CHAPTER II

experiences as a naval surgeon on the
''rattlesnake" [1846-50].

The chance suggestion made by Huxley's fellow-
student Fayrer (afterwards Sir Joseph Fayrer) that he
should apply for a post in the Medical Service of the
Navy, determined his whole future career, and conse-
quently had a momentous influence on the progress of
scientific thought and research. Early in 1846 he entered
the Navy, and was appointed to the Victory, for duty at
Haslar Hospital, serving under Sir John Richardson,
through whose recommendation he was transferred after
some delay to the Rattlesnake frigate during October of
the same year, in the capacity of assistant surgeon. It
was also understood that he would co-operate with
Macgillivray, the naturalist to the expedition. The ship
was detailed for survey work in Australian and East
Indian waters.

During the months that elapsed between the time
the appointment was promised him (May) and that of
departure (December), young Huxley with unremitting
energy took every opportunity of fitting himself for
the work of investigation before him. Owen, Gray,
and particularly Edward Forbes, gave him much in-
formation and counsel which afterwards proved invalu-
able. Forbes, a pioneer in the art of dredging for
scientific purposes, was especially friendly, sparing no
pains in explaining the technical methods employed for
the capture of marine animals. From him too Huxley

EXPERIENCES AS NAVAL SURGEON 7

obtained a living specimen of the Lancelet {Amphioxus
lanceolatus), for the purpose of investigating the nature
of its blood, on which he read a short paper at the
Meeting of the British Association, held that year at
Southampton (Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1847, Part 2, p. 95.
Sci. Mem., i, 11, p. 4).

It is interesting to notice that Charles Darwin and
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, who were afterwards among
Huxley's most intimate friends, began, as he did, their
scientific work on board ship, and given sufficient initial
ability, there is much to be said for some such way of
gaining horizon and wealth of imagination at the outset
of a specialist career in natural history. There is at
least no question that Huxley's early experiences in a
ship of discovery were an important factor in giving that
breadth of knowledge and interest by which he was so
eminently characterized.

From letters of the period we learn that the young
naturalist looked forward to the cruise with the most
eager anticipation, and chafed at the delays which inter-
vened between the promise of the appointment and the
departure of the Rattlesnake. She at last left Spithead
on December 3, 1846, and was away for four years, of
which nearly three were spent in Australian waters.
Professor Virchow in the Huxley Lecture for 1898,
summarized the value of the training acquired in the
following admirable way : —

" When Huxley himself left Charing Cross Hospital in 1846,
he had enjoyed a rich measure of instruction in anatomy and
physiology. Thus trained, he took the post of naval surgeon,
and by the time that he returned, four years later, he had become
a perfect zoologist and a keen-sighted ethnologist. How this
was possible, any one will readily understand who knows from
his own experience how great the value of personal observation
is for the development of independent and unprejudiced thought.

8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

For a young man who, besides collecting a rich treasure of
positive knowledge, has practised dissection and the exercise of
a critical judgment, a long sea-voyage and a peaceful sojourn
among entirely new surroundings afford an invaluable opportunity
for original work and deep reflection. Freed from the formalism
of the schools, thrown upon the use of his own intellect,
compelled to test each single object as regards properties and
history, he soon forgets the dogmas of the prevailing system and
becomes, first a sceptic, and then an investigator" (Times, Oct.
4, 1898).

Apart from the necessary appliances for marine sur-
veying, her chief work, the scientific equipment of the
Rattlesnake was nil, nor was she provided with any books
of reference. This was only a part of the cheese-
paring policy of the then Admiralty, which, as we shall
see in the sequel, nearly led to Huxley's abandoning
science as a profession altogether. But this sad lack of
equipment only adds to the brilliance of the work effected
under such trying and difficult conditions.

Regarding the routine details of Huxley's life on
board ship we learn that congenial company largely
atoned for inconvenient quarters, and his personal char-
acteristics stood him in good stead. Kindly good-nature
and equable spirits, combined with a saving sense of
humour and entire absence of " side," will go far to avert
friction, even among a band of cooped-up explorers.

After touching at Madeira, the Rattlesnake sailed to
Rio de Janeiro, where dredging for marine animals began.
Thence via the Cape and Mauritius to Hobart Town and
Sydney, the last being reached on July 16, 1847.

Besides a paper on a rare bivalve mollusc of ancient
type,' the scientific first fruits of the voyage were in
the form of two memoirs, one on the " Anatomy of

' " Di'scription of the Animal of Trigonia, from Actual Dissection"
(Proc. Zool. Soc.,xvii, 1849 i ^^^ Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., v, 1850.
Sci. Mem., i, iii, p. 6).

EARLY RESEARCHES 9

Physalia," ^ the Portuguese man-of-war, a colonial jelly-
fish (Proc. Lmn. Soc, 1849), and the other "On the
Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family of the Medusae "
(Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1849, Part 2, p. 413. Sci. Mem.,
i, IV, p. 9). Several other memoirs ^ may be grouped
with these, as well as the classical monograph on " The
Oceanic Hydrozoa" (Ray Society, 1858), of which
the publication was long delayed, owing to the penuri-
ousness of the Government.

These publications deal with those lower organisms
known to the older naturalists as " Zoophytes," and now
technically named Coelentera. They include hydroid
zoophytes, medusae or jelly-fishes, sea-anemones, corals,
and various other forms. Until Huxley's time the
systematics of this vast assemblage of apparently diverse
types was in a state of the utmost chaos, the attention
of previous workers having been chiefly devoted to
description and naming of species without due compari-
son. The young navy surgeon reduced this chaos to
order, and proved that a common plan of structure
dominates the entire series. He demonstrated, in short,
that the body of any one of these animals essentially
consists of two cellular membranes, bounding variously
shaped cavities, and suggested the equivalence of the
said membranes to " the two primary germinal leaf-
lets in the vertebrate embryo" (Prof. G. J. Allman, Life,
i, p. 40).

' Brief notice only. The complete "Memoir on Physalia," op. cit., ii,
1855, pp. 3-5. Sci. Mem., i, xxxvi, p. 361.

2 " On the Anatomy of Diphyes, and on the Unity of Composition of the
Diphyida and Physophoridse, etc." (Brief notice in Proc. Linn. Soc,

1849. Complete Memoir, op. cit., ii, 1855, pp. 67-9. Sci. Mem., i,
XXXVII, p. 363).

"Notes on Medusas and Polypes" (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., vi,

1850. Sci. Mem., i, v, p. 33).

"Ueber die Sexualorgane der Diphyidae und Physophoridae " (Miiller's
Archiv., 1851. Sci. Mem., i, xiv, p. 122).

lo THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

These important generalizations constitute a firm
foundation on which Haeckel and many other subsequent
workers have built, and they in themselves are amply
sufficient to give their author a prominent place in any
philosophical history of zoology.

And when we remember that Huxley's scientific
memoirs, published from 1845 to 1888 (inclusive),
amount to no less than 170, ranging over the entire
animal kingdom as well as including valuable ethnological
work, and that many of them are of epoch-making char-
acter and will ever remain classical, our conceptions as
to the vast industry and capacity of the man must be
almost indefinitely enlarged.

In later years Huxley was so prominently before the
public as a hard-hitting controversialist, especially on
behalf of Darwinism and the higher criticism, possessed
of unrivalled sardonic humour, that many are apt to regard
him as of a somewhat unsympathetic nature. Such an
idea, however, is entirely devoid of any solid foundation,
for like so many independent and positive characters,
he was extremely sensitive to the sympathy of others,
and was himself warm-hearted and appreciative to a
degree. It is somewhat unfortunate that a number
of his pungent epigrams, thrown off in moments of
irritation or as flashes of irrepressible sarcastic wit
without thought of their perpetuation, have been pre-
served to give a totally wrong impression of his general
character.

As for the advancement of science, so also for Huxley's
private life, the voyage of the Rattlesnake proved to
be of no small importance. For in Sydney he met, and
became engaged to, his future wife. Miss Henrietta Anne
Heathorn, his ideal union with whom was destined to
endure for forty years. The eleven months spent from

EARLY RESEARCHES ii

first to last in Sydney afforded abundant opportunity for
intimate mutual knowledge.

Apart from a short visit made to Bass's Strait, the
Rattlesnake made three northern cruises, surveying the
inshore Passage (between Australia and the Great Barrier
Reef), and thence exploring Torres Straits, the Louisiade
Archipelago and S.E. New Guinea. A westward ex-
tension of this work in the direction of Java and Sumatra
was prevented by the premature death of the commander.
Captain Owen Stanley. The ship finally left Australia
for England in May, 1850, returning by way of the Falk-
lands and Azores to Plymouth, and arriving at Chatham
on November 9, of the same year.

In a letter to Sir John Richardson, dated October 31,
1850, Huxley summarizes his Rattlesnake work (Life, i,
pp. 57-8), and the information there given is supple-
mented by his paper, *' Zoological Notes and Observa-
tions made on board H.M.S. Rattlesnake during the years
1846-50" (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, vii, 1851,
pp. 304-6, and viii, 185T, pp. 433-42. Sci. Mem., i, ix,
p. 80). Apart from the paper on Trigonia and the re-
searches on Medusee already mentioned, they include the
following, of which the three first are embodied in the
" Notes" just mentioned.

I. " Upon Thalassicola," an undescribed type of the
Protozoa or simple unicellular animals, most of which
are microscopic. In the middle of last century zoo-
logical classification was dominated by the views of
Cuvier, who had established several large groups or sub-
kingdoms, of which one was known as the " Radiata."
This included a vast assemblage of heterogeneous forms,
among which were Medusae and their allies, Echinoderms
(star-fishes, etc.), Entozoa (parasitic worms), Ascidians
(sea-squirts), Bryozoa (moss-polypes), and the above-named

12 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Protozoa, with which the sponges were then associated.
One of Huxley's aims was to reduce the Radiata to order,
breaking it up into smaller natural groups, and determin-
ing their affinities so far as possible.

His papers on Medusx had succeeded in doing this
for one large set of forms, and the paper now under
discussion was not merely a description of a new animal,
but also a successful attempt to define and delimit the
Protozoa. Huxley's view, now (if sponges are ex-
cluded) universally accepted, that these are of relatively
simple structure, directly traversed the authority of the
celebrated Ehrenberg, already challenged by a number
of distinguished naturalists.

2. " On the Anatomy of the Genus Tethya" (a sponge).

3. " On the Auditory Organs in the Crustacea."

The much-vexed question as to the position of these
structures (to which another function is now ascribed)
in the higher Crustacea, such as prawns and the like, is
definitely settled in this paper.

4. " Observations sur la Circulation du Sang chez les
Mollusques, des Genres Firole et Atlante " (Ann. des
Sci. Nat., XIV, 1850, pp. 193-5. Sci. Mem., i, vi, p. 36).
— Here we have a positive contribution to the physiology
of certain pelagic snails, founded upon observations made
on living specimens. Even at the present day physio-
logical work on invertebrates is relatively scanty, and
that so young a naturalist as Huxley then was should
devote some time to it is one of many proofs of the wide
nature of his interests.

5. "Observations on the Genus Sagitta" (Brit. Assoc.
Rep., 1 85 1. Sci. Mem., i, x, p. ^6). — The little arrow-
worms (Sagitta, etc.) occur in vast numbers in the float-
ing population (plankton) of the sea, and their classifi-
catory position is still a moot point. In this short paper

EARLY RESEARCHES 13

Huxley is inclined to associate them either with certain
degenerate Crustacea, or with the Arachnida (scorpions,
spiders, etc.), rather inclining to the latter view. But
in his letter to Sir John Richardson he tentatively
speaks of them as Annelids, or segmented worms.

6. " Observations upon the Anatomy and Physiology
of Salpa and Pyrosoma" (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 185 1,
Part 2, pp. 567-94. Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., ix,
1852, pp. 242-4. Sci. Mem. i, vii, p. 38).

7. " Remarks upon Appendicularia and Doliolum, two
Genera of the Tunicata" (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, 1 85 1,
Part 2, pp. ^^5-606. Sci. Mem., i, viii, p. 69).

The last two important memoirs deal with pelagic
members of the Tunicata, Ascidians, or sea-squirts,
animals which are now known to constitute a lowly
group of the Vertebrata. Huxley largely added to our
knowledge of their anatomy and physiology, and it does
not detract from the merits of his work that parts of it
had been anticipated. As in so many of his contribu-
tions to science the comparative method of Johannes
Miiller was applied with eminent success, and the work
on Salpa was of especial interest. For earlier in the
century Chamisso discovered in these creatures what he
termed " alternation of generations," i.e.^ the alternation
of a sexual and an asexual stage in the same life-history,
a phenomenon which is now known to be of frequent
occurrence among plants and in several groups of animals.
Huxley succeeded in placing Chamisso's conclusions on a
firm basis, at the same time modifying and extending them.

While the memoirs now briefly dealt with, and some
others to be subsequently mentioned, were the direct
result of Huxley's voyage, the material collected and the
observations then made led to other and later contribu-
tions to science.

14 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

In attempting to estimate the value of the earlier
contributions to science it is of course necessary to
bear in mind the backward state of many departments
of natural history, and the relatively crude nature of
biological technique compared with its present condition,
especially as regards microscopes, section-cutting and the
like.

CHAPTER III

SUCCESSES AND FAILURE [185O-4].

From the return of the Rattlesnake till 1854 Huxley's
career was scientifically a brilliant success, but other-
wise a long series of disappointments, not unmixed with
family sorrow. In 1849 the Admiralty had promised
him either rapid promotion or financial aid in the publi-
cation of his scientific work, but neither promise was
redeemed. In spite of the backing of many influential
friends, including Sir John Richardson, Prof. Owen
and Prof. Edward Forbes, the concessions granted him
practically amounted to leave of absence for three years
and a half, these being largely spent in working out his
results, as embodied in the memoirs dealt with in the
last chapter, and in preparation of the monograph on
" The Oceanic Hydrozoa," to publish which the Govern-
ment Grant was needed.

The matter came to a head when he applied for a
further extension of leave in January 1854, ^^^ answer
to which was an order to join the Illustrious at Ports-
mouth. Failing to comply with this, he was finally
struck off the Navy List in the following March. Not
only did he fail in getting the promised aid for publica-
tion from the Admiralty, but, for purely technical
reasons, the Royal Society was unable to allot him a
portion of the annual Government Research Grant for
this end.

During these years Huxley was also unsuccessful in
applications successively made for chairs in Toronto,

15

i6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Aberdeen, Cork, and King's College, London. And in
the middle of this depressing period the death of his
mother, which took place in April 1852, overwhelmed
him with the most profound sorrow. At this time he
was sorely tempted to abandon science as a profession
altogether, and but for the encouragement of his sister
Lizzie and the unwavering trust and devotion of Miss
Heathorn, might perhaps have done so.

Huxley's many occasions for despondency began to
be augmented in 1852 by professional jealousies, and
by attempts, luckily unsuccessful, to retard his further
progress. Then, as always, he proved himself a per-
fectly straightforward antagonist, but at the same time
one whom it was decidedly unpleasant to tackle;

There is fortunately a reverse side to the picture,
constituted by the immediate result of his scientific
work, and the friendships contracted during this some-
what depressing period of his life. His memoirs on the
Medusae and their allies, published during his absence
from England, placed him at once in the foremost rank
of scientific workers, and on June 5, 1851, he was
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, being one of
fifteen selected from a list of thirty-eight candidates, no
small distinction for a young man but just turned twenty-
six. And this was the result of sheer merit, untainted
by the slightest intrigue. The distinction was very
nearly increased by the award of the Royal Medal,
which, however, went to the veteran naturalist, New-
port, whose work was more voluminous but not of
better quality. Though naturally proud and pleased at
such recognition, it would seem that Huxley's pleasure
was somewhat tempered by reflections as to the dearth
of scientific posts in Britain, and the comparatively un-
remunerative nature of such as existed.

FURTHER RESEARCHES 17

The unsatisfactory attitude of the Admiralty, and un-
certainty as to prospects in general, stimulated rather
than diminished the output of scientific work at this time.
The memoir on Medusa (which gained him the F.R.S.),
and the account of Trigonia, were published during the
cruise of the Rattlesmke. By the end of 1 85 1 the papers
mentioned in the last chapter were completed, and also
the following : —

1. "Report upon the Researches of Prof. Miiller into
the Anatomy and Development of the Echinoderms"
(Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, viii, 1851, pp. I-19.
Sci. Mem., i, xni, p. 103). — After summarizing seven
memoirs written by Miiller ( 1 846-51), Huxley en-
deavours to show that the animals under discussion
(star-fishes, sea-urchins, etc.) furnish an illustration of
"alternation of generations," and discussed the meaning
to be attached in zoology to the term " individual,"
defining it as " the total result of the development of
a single ovum, whether this total result consist of one
or many independent existences." Here, as in so many
other instances, his strong interest in the philosophical
side of natural history is shown in a striking manner.

2. " On Lacinularia socialis, a Contribution to the
Anatomy and Physiology of the Rotifera" (Trans.
Micros. Soc. London, New Ser., i, 1853, pp. 1-19.
Read Dec. 31, 1851. Sci. Mem., i, xv, p. 126).
This memoir gives an exhaustive account of a wheel-
animalcule common in the Medway, and compares
it with other members of the group, the afiinities of
which are discussed. That the Rotifera must be re-
moved from the Radiata is clearly proved, but the view
that they should be closely associated with Echinoderms,
was subsequently modified. To this day the real affinities
of wheel-animalcules remain a matter of doubt.

i8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Huxley had already commenced his long friendship
with Hooker, and that with Tyndall began in connection
with the British Association Meeting of 1 85 1, held at
Ipswich. His close intimacy with these two fellow-
workers had no small influence upon his career, and meant
very much in many crises of his after life. To the lay
public, "Huxley and Tyndall" long stood for science at
large, as well as for scientific heterodoxy.

The following scientific memoirs appeared in 1852 : —

1. "On the Anatomy and Development of Echinococcus
veterinorum" (Proc. Zool. Soc, xx, 1852, pp. 110-26.
Sci. Mem., i, xix, p. 197). — This is an important contri-
bution to the morphology of yet another animal group,
the tape-worms (Cestoda), part of the heterogeneous
assemblage of parasitic forms, which, under the name of
Entozoa, were included in the Radiata. Huxley minutely
described the tape-worm stage known as Echinococcus,
which is found as a large compound cyst in the liver of
various hoofed mammals (and at times in man), and com-
pared it with the simpler cysts of other tape-worms.
His work and that of Von Siebold's (quoted in this paper)
established beyond question that the cyst in question is
an earlier stage in the life-history of a tape-worm which
infests the intestine of the dog.

2. "Researches into the Structure of the Ascidians "
(Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1852, pp. 76-7. Sci. Mem., i, xviii,
p. 194). — Huxley's previous researches upon Ascidians
(Tunicates) had given him a unique knowledge of the
group, and this short communication embodies various con-
clusions arrived at when cataloguing the British Museum
collection. It is particularly noteworthy that he com-
pares the branchial sac of Ascidians with the perforated
pharynx of the Lancelet {Amphioxus), for this foreshadows
the brilliant discovery subsequently made by Kowalewsky

FURTHER RESEARCHES 19

that Ascidians are not invertebrates but members of
the great sub-kingdom of back-boned animals. He
also confirms previous statements that the ''test" or
firm investment which characterizes members of the
group contains cellulose, a substance once thought to be
peculiar to plants, and of which cotton may be taken as a
good example.

3. " On the Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca,
as illustrated by the Anatomy of certain Heteropoda and
Pteropoda collected during the voyage of H. M.S. Rattle-
smke in 1846-50" (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, cxliii, 1853,
pp. 29-66. Read at the Brit. Assoc. Meeting of 1852.
Sci. Mem., i, xvii, p. 152). — The "cephalous" Mollusca
are those which possess a distinct head, e.g., cuttle-fishes
and snails, and the groups named include pelagic animals
belonging to the latter category. After remarking on the
unsatisfactory state of knowledge as regards Mollusca,
the author says that this appears, —

" to result from two causes ; — first, from the want of a clear and
definite conception of the fundamental varieties of molluscous
structure, and of the nature of the changes in the relations of
parts which constitute those varieties ; and secondly, from the
want of a due regard to the facts presented by the development
of the various families, which must stand in the relation of cause
to the varieties of form.

" Now in order to the former end (the obtaining of a definite
conception of the varieties of molluscous form), I propose to set
forth the structure of certain Heteropoda and Pteropoda ; pelagic
animals so transparent, that a perfect knowledge of the arrange-
ment of their parts may be arrived at by simple inspection, with-
out so much as interrupting a beat of their heart.

*' Afterwards, I shall inquire how far the known laws of
development account for these forms, and thence of what arche-
typal form they may be supposed to be modifications."

Many additions to our knowledge were made in the
descriptive part of this memoir, though the mistaken

20 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

account of the mode of action of the rasping-organ (odon-
tophore) has been taken over implicitly by many subse-
quent observers. But the theoretical matter is of
much greater interest, endeavouring as it does to explain
various molluscan forms as variants of the same primitive
type, which is reconstructed in detail. The particular
molluscs employed as the basis of the work were some-
what unfortunately chosen, while the Tunicates and
Bryozoa (moss-polypes) are too closely associated with
the Mollusca, but though some of the conclusions reached
would not now be accepted, the memoir will always re-
main as a brilliant piece of speculative investigation, far in
advance of the time when it was written. The impor-
tance attached to embryological evidence in the deter-
mination of affinities marks the influence of the veteran
embryologist. Von Baer.

As an outcome of his researches on Medusae, the Royal
Society now awarded the Royal Medal for Physiology to
Huxley (Nov. 30, 1852), thus still further emphasizing
the high position he had already secured in the scientific
world. He and the other medallists were entertained at
the anniversary dinner of the Society held on the same
day, and he then spoke in moderate though unmistakable
terms of the delayed grant to which allusion has already
been made. The way in which this speech was received
clearly shows that the leading exponents of science fully
sympathized with him in his position as regards the
Admiralty, a sympathy indeed of which there had already
been abundant proof.

The year 1852 also marks the commencement of
Huxley's career as a lecturer, for on April 30 he delivered
a discourse on " Animal Individuality " at the Royal Insti-
tution (Proc. Roy. Inst., i, 1851-4, pp. 184-9. Sci.
Mem., i, xvi, p. 146). Remembering the popularity to

ROYAL INSTITUTION LECTURE 21

which he afterwards attained in this particular direction,
it is interesting, though scarcely surprising to learn that
his earlier efforts were not an unqualified success, owing
to undue speed and the assumption of a conversational
style. On this subject he remarks as follows in his
Autobiography (Coll. Essays, i, p. 15) : —

" At that time I disliked public speaking, and had a firm
conviction that I should break down every time I opened my
mouth. I believe I had every fault a speaker could have (except
talking at random or indulging in rhetoric), when I spoke to the
first important audience I ever addressed, on a Friday evening at
the Royal Institution, in 1852. Yet, I must confess to having
been guilty, malgre moi, of as much public speaking as most of
my contemporaries, and for the last ten years it ceased to be so
much of a bugbear to me. I used to pity myself for having to
go through this training, but I am now more disposed to com-
passionate the unfortunate audiences, especially my ever-friendly
hearers at the Royal Institution, who were the subjects of my
oratorical experiments."

The following two papers were ptiblished in
1853:-

1. " Observations on the Existence of Cellulose in the
Tunic of Ascidians " (Q. J. Micros. Sci., i, 1 853. Sci.
Mem., i, xxi, p. 221.) — This is an extension of his
previous work on the subject.

2. " On the Development of the Teeth, and on the
Nature and Import of Nasmyth's 'Persistent Capsule'"
(op. cit., i, 1853. ^^^- Mem., i, xxii, p. 224). — In this
paper Huxley, after describing the development of teeth,
homologizes them with hairs, a view which is not now
accepted.

To these memoirs must be added a luminous exposi-
tion of "The Cell Theory" (Brit, and For. Medico-
Chir. Review, xii, 1 853, pp. 285-314. Sci. Mem., i,
xxiii, p. 242), which expounds the minute structure of

22 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

organisms, and of which Sir Michael Foster justly states
that it was, —

" a pajjcr which more than one young physiologist at the time
read with delight, and which even to-day may be studied with
no little profit," and that " he, in this subject, as in others, drove
the sword of rational inquiry through the heart of conceptions,
metaphysical and transcendental, but dominant." (Obituary
Notice, Proc. Roy. Soc, lix, 1895-6, p. Iv).

The Friday Evening Discourse " On the Identity of
Structure of Plants and Animals," delivered to the Royal
Institution, April 15, 1853, '^ practically a lecture on the
same theme (Proc. Roy. Inst., i, 1851-4, pp. 298-302;
and Edinburgh New Philos. J., liii, 1852, pp. 1 72-7.
Sci. Mem., i, xx, p. 216).

During these years of stress Huxley not only estab-
lished his reputation as a scientific investigator, and
commenced his career as a lecturer, but also laid the
foundation of that literary style which ultimately gave
him a prominent position in the world of letters. To
the Westfninster l^rview he regularly contributed the
article on " Contemporary Science," was commissioned
to write a Matiual ofi Co?nparative Anatomy for I\4essrs.
Churchill, and so on. He estimated in fact that by
means of his pen alone he was in the position to earn
about ^^250 per annum, more than his Navy pay, and
was therefore able to regard the decision of the Admir-
alty with comparative equanimity, and prepared, if
necessary, to wait in the hope that some congenial scien-
tific post might fall to his lot.

Just as Huxley's inimitable powers as a lecturer were
very largely the result of the most painstaking cultiva-
tion, so also with his literary style. Comparatively few
were privileged to hear him speak, but his writings have
been and will remain a source of pleasure as well as

LITERARY STYLE 23

profit to countless thousands. Yet the eminently lucid
easy style so many have admired was the result of
laborious work and much re-writing, a concrete instance
of that "ars celare artem" which has distinguished many
masters of English prose. And his standard became
ever higher as time went on. To quote the words of
a well-known orator and man of letters, " in these days
even a man of science is expected to be a good speaker
and writer," an expectation largely due to Huxley's
example, the outcome of his dictum that " science and
literature are not two things, but two sides of the same
thing." This salutary attitude has done no little for
science, and something for literature.

When, in 1891, de Varigny was engaged in translating
some of Huxley's works he received a letter containing
this passage : —

" The fact is that I have a great love and respect for my
native tongue, and take great pains to use it properly. Some-
times I write essays half-a-dozen times before I can get them
into the proper shape ; and I believe I become more fastidious
as I grow older " (Life, ii, p. 291).

It is a matter of common knowledge that these striv-
ings after a proper use of the mother tongue were
successful in no mean degree.

CHAPTER IV

BEGINNING OF PROFESSORIAL WORK IN LONDON
[1854-8].

The year 1854 ^^^ ^ memorable one in many ways for
Huxley. His friend Edward Forbes was appointed to
an Edinburgh chair, and he succeeded him in London
as Lecturer in Natural History in the Royal School of
Mines with a stipend of ;i^20o per annum, and later in
the year became Naturalist to the Geological Survey at
a commencing salary of like amount. He was also ap-
pointed Lecturer in Comparative Anatomy at St. Thomas's
Hospital. Huxley always held very strongly that London
was the best centre for scientific purposes, and proved
true to his convictions by spending the rest of his work-
ing life there, though he might, to his financial benefit,
have become a professor in Edinburgh University.
The death of Forbes later in the year was a heavy blow
to him, and, by organizing a memorial fund, he helped
to perpetuate the memory of one who had been his
warmest and most loyal friend among the senior natura-
lists of that time.

By a singularly ironical stroke of fate, the Govern-
ment grant which the Royal Society, for technical
reasons, felt unable to award while he was still in the
service of the Navy was now given him. The sum
assigned was i^goo, and the Ray Society undertook to
defray any further expense, and to publish the detailed
investigations for which this grant was needed. The
much-delayed monograph was not published, however,

24

OCEANIC HYDROZOA 25

till 1858, under the name of " The Oceanic Hydrozoa :
a Description of the Calycophoridae and Physophoridae
observed during the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, in
the years 1846- 1850." To this classical work, which
gives a detailed and comparative treatment of a difficult
and then little-known group, and which is dedicated to
Sir John Richardson, M.D., F.R.S., his old chief at
Haslar, Huxley wrote a Preface, summarizing the diffi-
culties that had prevented earlier publication, and acknow-
ledging his indebtedness to MacLeay of Sydney, Edward
Forbes, and others.

The following " Extract from a Memorandum by the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty prefixed to the
first edition of the * Manual of Scientific Enquiry pre-
pared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy,' edited by
Sir J. F. W. Herschel, and published in 1849" is placed
at the head of the Preface : —

" It is the opinion of the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty that it would be to the honour and advantage of the
Navy and conduce to the general interests of Science, if new
facilities and encouragement were given to the collection of
information upon scientific subjects by the officers, and more
particularly by the medical officers, of Her Majesty's Navy, when
upon foreign service. . . . And it will be for their Lordships
to consider whether some pecuniary reward or promotion may
not be given to those who succeed in producing eminently useful
results."

And from the Preface itself the following extracts are
worth quoting : —

" The facts are these. I made a good many observations
during our cruise, and sent home several papers to the Linnean
and Royal Societies ; but of these doves, or rather ravens,
which left my ark, I had heard absolutely nothing up to the
time of my return ; and, save for the always kind and hearty
encouragement of the celebrated William MacLeay, whenever

26 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

our return to Sydney took me within reach of his hospitality, I
know not wiicthcr I should have had the courage to continue
labours which might, so far as 1 knew, be valueless.

*' On reaching England, however, I found not only that the
Royal Society had thought my Memoir on the Medusce worthy
of publication, but helping hands were stretched out to me on
all sides ; and among the men of science, 1 met with many
generous friends whose sympathy and appreciation were bestowed
in a measure, far beyond my deserts. Among these, the genial,
and noble-minded Edward Forbes supported me with all that
energy which he was wont to throw into his advocacy of the
cause of a young man ; and now that I have succeeded (though,
alas ! not replaced) him in the professorial chair he then held,
and have some personal experience of an analogous variety of
occupations and weight of responsibilities, I cannot reflect with-
out emotion on the patient attention which he bestowed upon
me, and the self-sacrificing zeal with which he exerted all his
' power, amity, and authority ' in my favour."

After narrating the unsuccessful attempts of his friends
and himself to obtain the grant which the Admiralty
minute seemed to warrant, he continues : —

" It would be wearisome were I to narrate the history of
their other efforts at length. In vain the Presidents of the Royal
Society and of the British Association, separately and conjointly,
officially and unofficially, solicited the Treasury ; in vain did I
visit and write to, and I fear, bore, numerous persons in authority
about this unfortunate grant. It must be confessed the business
was troublesome enough while it lasted ; but, in looking back,
I would fain only remember with gratitude the zeal of the
friends who aided me, and the long-suffi£ring courtesy of the
various Government officials, who listened so attentively to the
claims of that Natural Science about which, unless I am greatly
mistaken, they neither knew nor cared very much.

'• During the three years the contest lasted, I reckon that the
Admiralty was good enough to give me, in the form of pay,
rather more than fifty pounds over the sum required, although,
with steady consistency, their Lordships from the first refused
to enable me to publish the work which they paid me for
publishing. I by no means quarrel with an arrangement, which,

PROSPECT OF MARRIAGE 27

although very annoying at the time, has been of the utmost
service to me; for when, in 1854, their Lordships, as I
suppose, weary of our pertinacity, cut the knot by calling upon
me to serve afloat, new prospects had presented themselves, and,
in giving up my commission, I obtained the long-sought funds
for publication — the administrators of the Government Grant no
longer objecting, that the Admiralty was pledged to supply its
officers with funds for the publication of work, done in its
service."

The year 1 854 not only brought Huxley some of the
more solid rewards of success, but was satisfactory in
another way, for, before his appointments fell to him, Mr.
Heathorn had decided to come with his wife and dauf^hter
to England, there to reside permanently. And there was
therefore an immediate prospect of marriage, after a long
engagement, extending over a period of much anxiety
and adversity.

The scientific work published during this year includes
the following : —

I. " On the Vascular System of the Lower Annulosa"
(Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1854, p. 109. Sci. A4em., i, xxiv,
p. 279). — This highly speculative paper did good service
by throwing doubt upon the then accepted view that
certain sets of branching tubes in various worm-like forms
and Echinoderms were equivalent to the blood system
of higher Invertebrates. But at the same time, other
homologies were suggested which subsequent research has
shown to be untenable. To criticize the early pioneer
work of an eminent investigator is a particularly difficult
task, but here and elsewhere Huxley was rather prone
to jump at conclusions, an inherited character, regarding
which he himself says, "... it has often stood me in
good stead ; it has sometimes played me sad tricks, and it
has always been a danger" (Autobiography, Coll. Essays,
i, p. 4).

28 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

2. "On the Common Plan of Animal Forms " (Abstract
of a Friday Evening Discourse delivered at the Royal
Institution on May 12, 1854. Proc. Roy. Inst., i, 185 1-4,
pp. 444-6. Sci. Mem., i, xxv, p. 281). — After demon-
strating that Vertebrates, Annulosa, and Molluscs present
variations on three common plans of structure (the same
being also true for other great groups), the question is
raised as to the nature of the relations, if any, between
such plans, the conclusion being that they are specializa-
tions of a more fundamental type, as indicated by the
facts of embryology. Written in pre-Darwinian days the
discourse is distinguished by what we should now call an
evolutionary tone, implied rather than expressed.

3. " On the Structure and Relation of the Corpuscula
Tactus (Tactile Corpuscles or Axile Corpuscles) and of
the Pacinian Bodies" (Q. J. Micros. Soc, ii, 1854,
pp. 1-7. Sci. Mem., i, xxvi, p. 284).

4. "On the Ultimate Structure and Relations of the
Malpighian Bodies of the Spleen and of the Tonsillar
Follicles" (op. cit., ii, 1854, PP- 74-^2. Sci. Mem., i,
XXVII, p. 291). — This and the preceding memoir are
chiefly interesting as illustrating the author's leaning
towards the physiological aspect of natural history {cf.
p. 4).

An address delivered at St. Martin's Hall, July 22,
1854, " On the Educational Value of the Natural History
Sciences" (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 38), marks the beginning
of one important side of Huxley's life-work, i.e., his
persistent endeavour to secure a fitting place for science
in education. In these later days, when our educational
systems and ideals are undergoing revision, the claims
of science are not likely to be forgotten, thanks very
largely to the strenuous pioneer efforts of Huxley and men
of his stamp.

SCIENCE IN EDUCATION 29

In his Preface (dated September 4, 1 893) to the volume
of Collected Essays, in which this particular one is included,
the author says : —

" The oldest piece, that ' On the Educational Value of the
Natural History Sciences,' contains some crudities, which I re-
pudiated when the lecture was first reprinted, more than twenty
years ago ; but it will be seen that much of what I have had to
say, later on in life, is merely a development ot the propositions
enunciated in this early and sadly-imperfect piece of work."

Imperfect or not, the essay, which includes a luminous
exposition of the scientific method, contains some fine
passages, of which perhaps the most famous is one which
shows the influence of Hume : —

'• So far as I can arrive at any clear comprehension of the
matter, science is not, as many would seem to suppose, a modi-
fication of the black art, suited to the tastes of the nineteenth
century, and flourishing mainly in consequence of the decay of
the Inquisition. Science is, I believe, nothing but trained a7id
organised common sense, differing from the laiter only as a veteran
may differ from a raw recruit. . . ."

And the summing-up paragraph is well deserving the
most serious attention on the part of modern educa-
tionists : —

" Biology needs no apologist when she demands a place — and
a prominent place — in any scheme of education worthy of the
name. Leave out the physiological sciences from your curri-
culum, and you launch the studenfinto the world, undisciplined
in that science whose subjecf-matter would best develop his
powers of observation ; ignorant of facts of the deepest impor-
tance for his own and others' welfare ; blind to the richest sources
of beauty in God's creation ; and unprovided with that belief
in a living law, and an order manifesting itself in and through
endless change and variety, which might serve to check and
moderate that phase of despair through which, if he take an
earnest interest in soci'd problems, he will assuredly sooner or later
pass."

30 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

The Hcathorns arrived in England in May 1855* ^^^^
though unfortunately Miss Hcathorn's feeble health gave
cause for great anxiety, her marriage took place on the
following July 21, the summer being spent in Tenby.
Even during the honeymoon Huxley busied himself with
observations on a submerged forest at Amroth, and with
other scientific work. At that time Darwin seems scarcely
to have realized his pre-eminently strenuous nature, for he
wrote, " I hope your marriage will not make you idle;
happiness, I fear, is not good for work." A warning
of opposite kind would have been much more to the
point.

Huxley's method of preparing lectures affords a good
illustration of his indefatigable industry, in response to
the prompting of a high ideal. Not content merely
with acquainting himself with the relative literature,
nor satisfied with his own unusually extensive know-
ledge, he took a vast amount of pains to acquire a
first-hand acquaintance with facts from one end of
the animal kingdom to the other. His lectures, in
short, often involved a considerable amount of original
investigation.

The following scientific memoirs require mention
here : —

I. " Contributions to the Anatomy of the Brachiopoda"
(Proc. Roy. Soc, vii, 1B54-5, pp. 106-17, 241-2, Sci.
Mem., i, xxxii, p. 325)- — The ancient group of "lamp-
shells," of which the members possess a bivalve shell that
suggests a relationship to molluscs, is still one that pre-
sents many problems for solution, and naturally presented
still more in the early fifties. The memoir embodies
some very careful anatomical work, and throws doubt
upon the interpretation of certain organs as " hearts,"
doubt that has since been fully justified, for the organs

VARIOUS RESEARCHES 31

ill question are now well known to be connected with
nitrogenous excretion.

2. " On a Hermaphrodite and Fissiparous Species of
Tubicolar Annelida (Protula Dysteri) " (Edinburgh New
Philos. J., i, 1855, PP- l^3~-9- Sc'- Mem,, i, xxxiii,
p. 337). — This is a careful study of a marine worm,
presenting many points of interest to the specialist,

3. "On the Structure of Noctiluca miliaris" (Q. J,
Micros. Soc, iii, 1 855, pp. 49-54- Sci. Mem., i,
XXXIV, p, 350- — ^^ have here a contribution to our
knowledge of an animalcule which is one of the causes of
the phosphorescence of the sea.

4. "On the Enamel and Dentine of the Teeth" (op.
cit., iii, 1855, pp. 127-30, Sci. Mem,, i, xxxv,
p. 357)- — This is simply an answer to criticisms by
M. Edouard Lent on a previous paper.

5. " Tegumentary Organs" (in Todd's Cyclopedia of
Anatomy and Physiology, published in the parts which
appeared between August 1855, and October 1856. Sci.
Mem., i, xxxviii, p. 365). — This classical comparative
study of the skin of animals marks, as Sir Michael Foster
has pointed out, that leaning to the physiological side
which circumstances prevented from having full play, and
which can be traced to the influence of Johannes MuUer.
That influence, however, and the equally potent one of
Von Baer, the father of embryology, deeply tinged a
very large part if not the whole of Huxley's scientiiic
work.

6. " On Certain Zoological Arguments commonly Ad-
duced in Favour of the Hypothesis of the Progressive
Development of Animal Life in Time" (Abstract of a
Friday Evening Discourse delivered at the Royal Insti-
tution, April 20, 1855; Proc. Roy. Inst., ii, 1854-8,
pp. 82-5. Sci. Mem., i, xxviii, p. 300). — The lecture

32 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

combats the general view that "the history of life as a
whole, in the past, is analogous to the history of each
individual life in the present," and affirms that " the pro-
gress of a higher animal in development is not through
the forms of the lower, but through forms which are
common to both lower and higher. . . ." We find, in fact,
that this pre-Darwinian discourse fully appreciates the
nature of what is now known as Von Baer's Law, the
subject of much misapprehension down to quite recent
times. And further one of the difficulties of the evolu-
tion theory is here anticipated, i.e., that the great sub-
divisions of the animal kingdom are of vast antiquity, and
were most or all specialized in times regarding which
the geological record as yet is silent, so far as life is
concerned.

During the year 1 855 Huxley gave his first course of
lectures to working-men at Jermyn Street, thus initiat-
ing a direction of his manifold activities which proved
both valuable and extremely popular. With rare ex-
ceptions, working men only were admitted to these
courses, and curious subterfuges were sometimes resorted
to in order to secure the much-coveted places in the
auditorium. The writer knows of one such case, where
a clerk succeeded in gaining admission by representing
himself as a "driver," suppressing a part of his full
description as a '' quill-driver." Before lecturing to this
kind of audience Huxley wrote to his friend Dyster : —
" I am sick of the dilettante middle-class, and mean to
try what I can do with these hard-handed fellows who
live among facts." And in a subsequent letter, after
paying a tribute to the earnestness and attention of the
audience, he goes on to say : — "I believe in the fustian,
and can talk better to it than to any amount of gauze
and Saxony. . . ." Certain it is that Huxley exerted

LECTURES TO WORKING MEN 33

his great powers to the utmost in order to make these
courses of lectures a success, and it has been considered
that they were his best effort in the spoken presentment
of scientific truths, an opinion which the present writer
is incHned to endorse.

CHAPTER V

EARLY WORK ON FOSSILS AND BACKBONED ANIMALS.
MUSEUM ARRANGEMENT [l 856-8].

In 1856, Huxley's official duties as Naturalist to the
Geological Survey began to lead him away from the
researches on the Invertebrates which had brought him
such merited distinction. This diversion, though it ulti-
mately led to work which was of the greatest import-
ance in the evolution controversy, was much against his
will, and he tells us in his Autobiography that when Sir
Henry de la Beche offered him the posts of Naturalist to
the Survey and Lecturer in Natural History vacated by
Forbes, —

"I refused the former point-blank, and accepted the latter
only provisionally, telling Sir Henry that I did not care for
fossils, and that I should give up Natural History as soon as
I could get a physiological post. But I held the office for
thirty-one years, and a large part of my work has been
palasontological " (Coll. Essays, i, p. v).

During the first sixteen years of his tenure of this
office he produced no fewer than thirty-eight papers and
memoirs on palaeontological subjects.

His first essay of the kind, " On the Method of Palaeon-
tology" (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., xviii, 1856, pp.
43-54. Sci. Mem. i, xxxix, p. 432), was particularly
well received in North America, and was reprinted in
1869 by the Smithsonian Institute. It is in part an answer
to an attack made by Dr. Falconer upon a Friday Evening

34

FOSSILS AND BACKBONED ANIMALS 35

Discourse " On Natural History, as Knowledge, Discip-
line and Power," given at the Royal Institution,
February 15, 1856 (Proc. Roy. Inst,, ii, 1854-8, pp.
187-95. Sci. Mem., i, xxix, p. 305). His position
briefly was that palaeontology is independent of the
Cuvierian principle of physiological correlation or co-
adaptation of organs, and is essentially the method of
agreement. Utilitarian explanations of structure are also
put out of court in somewhat summary fashion, an attitude
which Darwinian principles have since rendered untenable
in large degree. In the discourse, for instance, we read :
*' Who has ever dreamed of finding an utilitarian purpose
in the forms and colours of flowers . . . ? " Yet every
biologist now knows that Christian Konrad Sprengel gave
good reasons for such a belief in his famous book, Das
Entdeckte Geheimniss der Natiir im Ban imd in der Befriich-
tung der Bliimen^ published at Berlin, 1793, ^ book for
too long entirely forgotten.

Of other scientific papers bearing date 1856, we have
the following : —

1. ''Observations on the Structure and Affinities of
Himantopterus " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xii, 1856, pp. 34-7.
Sci. Mem., i, xl, p. 445). — The paper describes a member
of an ancient extinct group which finds its nearest living
allies among the king-crabs.

2. " Further Observations on the Structure of Appendi-
cularia flabellum (Chamisso)" (Q. J. Micros. Sci., iv, 1856,
pp. 1 8 1-9 1. Sci. Mem,, i, xli, p. 449). — This is a most
valuable extension of a communication read before the
Royal Society in 1 851 upon a remarkable type of free -
swimming Ascidian {cf. p. 13).

3. " Note on the Reproductive Organs of the Cheilos-
tome Polyzoa" (op. cit., iv, 1856, pp. 191-2. Sci.
Mem., i. xlii, p. 461). — Here we have a short contribu-

36 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

tion to our knowledge of a group that had already
engaged the author's attention {cf. p. 20).

One piece of work to which Huxley at this time turned
his attention in his capacity as Naturalist to the Geo-
logical Survey was that of museum arrangement. He
re-organized the Museum of Practical Geology in Jermyn
Street for teaching purposes, and from this period on
took a great interest in various British collections of
objects, whether public or private, large or small. In
his opinion, a great central collection ought to be of a
triple character, providing for the general public, the
specialist, and the requirements of applied science. In
many respects the magnificent Natural History Museum
at South Kensington, as now arranged, realizes these
ideals. The Natural History Museum in Hamburg may
also be pointed out as largely satisfying the requirements
which Huxley deemed to be of such importance. As to
local collections, he was strongly of opinion that they
should primarily be of local character. And in a letter
(dated December 8, 1872), to Mr. Alfred Walker, of
Colwyn Bay, after emphasizing the importance of strictly
local collections, he adds, very characteristically : —
"Whereas the ordinary lumber-room of clubs from
New Zealand, Hindoo idols, sharks' teeth, scorpions,
mangy monkeys, and conch shells — who shall describe
the weary inutility of it?" (Life, i, p. 136).

The most important personal event during 1857 was the
birth, on New Year's Day, of his first child, a son, whose
death nearly four years later was perhaps the greatest
grief of his life, borne with that fortitude and resignation
which distinguished him in times of adversity.

Unfortunately during this year, and at but too frequent
intervals during the rest of his life, Huxley suffered from
severe attacks of bad health, for which the best cure

PRELIMINARY LECTURES 37

proved to be walking tours in Britain or Switzerland.
Considering that he was never robust, and taxed his
strength to the utmost by all sorts of work, it is marvellous
that he should have accomplished so much, especially
when it is remembered that the last ten years of his life
(sixty to seventy) were perforce comparatively unproduc-
tive, so far as pure science is concerned.

One result of summer holidays spent in Switzerland
with Tyndall during this and the previous year were
papers entitled, " Observations on the Structure of Glacier
Ice" (Phil. Mag., xiv, 1857, pp. 241-60. Sci. Mem. i,
XLVi, p. 482), and " On the Structure and Motion of
Glaciers" (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, cxlvii, 1857, pp.
327-46. Read January 15, 1857. Sci. Mem. ii, i, p. l).

Not content with giving his ordinary lectures in Jermyn
Street, which many of his students were incapable of fully
appreciating owing to want of acquaintance with funda-
mental principles, Huxley began in 1 857 to give a pre-
liminary evening course of nine lectures, with the object
of supplying the general knowledge necessary. These
lectures consisted of " physiography," together with the
preliminaries of paleontology, and a broad sketch of the
classification, distribution, and morphology of organisms.

His manifold activities now also included the duties in-
volved by his position as Examiner in Physiology and
Comparative Anatomy to the University of London.

A Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution
was given (May 15) " On the Present State of our Know-
ledge as to the Structure and Functions of Nerve " (Proc.
Roy. Inst., ii, 1854-8, pp. 432-7. Sci. Mem. i, xxx,
p. 315). — In this lecture we have a further indication of
strong physiological tendencies.

In this year too he was elected an honorary member
of the Microscopical Society of Giessen and the Academy

38 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

of Rreslau, the commencement of that general recogni-
tion of his scientific eminence by foreign countries which
was afterwards manifested in so large a measure.

The scientific work for 1857 includes the following
memoirs : —

1. "Description of a New Crustacean (Pygocephalus
Cooperi, Huxley) from the Coal Measures " (Q. J. Geol.
Soc, xiii, 1857, pp. 363-9. Sci. Mem., i, XLiii,
p. 463).

2. " On Dysteria; a New Genus of Infusoria" (Q. J.
Micros. Sci., v, 1857, PP- 78-82. Sci. Mem., i, xliv,
p. 471).' — This is an account of a marine animalcule, dis-
covered by Dr. Dyster at Tenby.

3. " Review of Dr. Hannover's Memoir : ' Ueber die
Entwickelung und den Bau des Saugethierzahns '" (op.
cit., V, 1857, pp. 166-71. Sci. Mem., i, xlv, p. 476).
— This is a critical review of a research on the structure
and especially on the development of mammalian teeth.

4. " On the Agamic Reproduction and Morphology
of Aphis " (Trans. Linn. Soc, xxii, 1858, pp. 193-220,
221-36. Read November 5, 1857. ^ci. Mem., ii, 11,
p. 26). — This classical memoir deals in detail with the
structure and life-histories of Aphides {vide infra). Apart
from the descriptive work it embodies generalizations of
high value, and the influence of Von Baer is clearly trace-
able in the emphasis laid upon embryological evidence.

During 1858 the usual lectures were given, including
a course on the " Principles of Biology " at the Royal
Institution, the last of a triennial series delivered in the
capacity of Fullerian Professor. A Friday Evening Dis-
course ''On the Phenomena of Gemmation" was de-
livered at this Institution on May 21. This dealt with
the extraordinary life-histories of Aphides, familiarly
known as "plant lice" or "green fly," in which sexual

SCIENCE IN SATURBAT REVIEW 39

and asexual modes of generation alternate {cf. No. 4,
p. 38). (Proc. Roy. Inst., ii, 1 854-8, pp. 534-8. Sci.
Mem., i, XXXI, p. 321).

A particularly interesting feature of the year was the
organization of a scientific column in the Saturday Review,
the outcome of a conference between Huxley, Hooker
and Tyndall, who were impressed with the desirability of
making recent scientific work known to the general public
as well as to specialists. The column was intended to
serve the purpose of a " Scientific Review," the launch-
ing of which appeared at the time to be impracticable.
Some years later (1861) the original project was to some
extent realized by the publication of a quarterly Natural
History Revieiu, which became extinct in 1865. Mr.
(now Sir Norman) Lockyer was the science editor of this
publication, and the experience then gained enabled him in
1869 to initiate Nature, which flourishes to this day.

During this year Huxley became a Fellow of the
Linnean Society, and was elected a member of the
Athenseum Club under the " Distinguished Persons
Rule." His proposer for the latter was Sir R. J.
Murchison : eighteen out of nineteen voted for the pro-
position, and no one against it.

Much of the scientific work for 1858 is embodied in
the following memoirs : —

1. " On Cephalaspis and Pteraspis" (Q. J. Geol. Soc,
xiv, 1858, pp. 267-80. Sci. Mem., i, xlvii, p. 502). —
The structure of these extraordinary fossil forms, which
we now know to be of lower grade than fishes, is care-
fully discussed, and their possible affinities with certain
members of the group of ordinary bony fishes are pointed
out.

2. " Observations on the Genus Pteraspis " (Brit.
Assoc. Rep., 1858, Part 2, pp. 82-3. Sci. Mem., i,

40 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

XLViii, p. 517). The suggestions made by the author
in the last memoir as to the affinities of these extinct
types is repeated with rather more emphasis, on the
strength of further evidence. The view tentatively
advanced would not now be accepted, but the difficulty
of the matter is fully realized, and there is a marked
absence of dogmatic statement.

3. "On a New Species of Plesiosaurus, etc." (O. J.
Geol. Soc, xiv, 1858, pp. 281-94. ^^^- Mem., i,
XLix, p. 522). — This technical comparative memoir is
an important contribution to our knowledge of a
remarkable group of swan-necked marine reptiles which
were dominant during the Mesozoic epoch.

4. " On Some Points in the Anatomy of Nautilus
pompilius" (J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), iii, 1859, pp. 36-44.
Read June 3, 1858. Sci. Mem., ii, iii, p. 81). — This is
an addition to our knowledge of the pearly Nautilus, the
last survivor of a long series of extinct types.

5. " On the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull " (Proc.
Roy. Soc, ix, 1857-9, PP- 38l"457> Annals and Mag.
Nat. Hist., iii, 1859, PP- 4H"39' ^^i. Mem., i, L,
p. 538). — Here we have an epoch-making memoir, which
is in substance the Croonian lecture delivered before
the Royal Society, June 17, 1858. It completely
demolishes the transcendental theory of Oken that the
skull is in reality composed of three modified vertebrae,
and is therefore equivalent to a modified piece of
the backbone. The facts of comparative anatomy and
embryology are marshalled in a masterly fashion against
this conception. At the same time the speculative views
of Owen, founded upon those of Oken, are subjected to
destructive criticism.

This precluded any settlement of the rupture which
had taken place the previous year between the two

THEORY OF THE SKULL 41

specialists, the outcome of gradually increasing tension,
for which Huxley was in nowise to blame. The im-
portance of the memoir was long after summarized
by Sir Michael Foster in his Obituary Notice of the
author : —

" This lecture marked an epoch in England in vertebrate
morphology, and the views enunciated in it carried forward, if
somewhat modified, as they have been, not only by Huxley's
subsequent researches, and by those of his disciples, but especi-
ally by the splendid work of Gegenbaur, are still, in the main,
the views of the anatomists of to-day " (Proc. Roy. Soc, lix,
1895-6, p. liv).

CHAPTER VI

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES [1859].

There are three classical works, published at intervals
of fifty years, which have exercised a far - reaching
influence upon the progress of science and the develop-
ment of thought in general. The first of these was
Caspar Friedrich Wolff's Theoria Generationis (1759), in
which the progressive development of the individual by
gradual upbuilding (epigenesis) from a simple germ is
maintained as against the rival theory (then called
"evolution") asserting that this development consists
merely in an expansion of parts present from the first.

Fifty years later (1809) Lamarck published his Philo-
sophie Zoologique, in which the progressive development
of species (" evolution " in the modern sense) is deduced
from various classes of facts, and ascribed to the direct
influence of surroundings (environment), of crossing, and
of habits (use and disuse).

After the lapse of still another half-century The
Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, by Charles
Darwin, made its appearance on November 24, 1859,
being preceded (July, 1858) by joint communications to
the Linnean Society made by the author and Alfred
Russel Wallace, who had independently arrived at
similar conclusions. The theory of Natural Selection is
founded upon three classes of facts, i.e., the keen
"struggle for existence" that undoubtedly takes place
in nature as the result of rapid increase, the differences
between members of the same species (variation), and

42

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 43

the transmission of characters from one generation to
another (heredity). Individuals varying in directions
giving them an advantage in the struggle for existence
are more likely to survive and leave offspring than their
fellows, i.e., have a better chance of being '* naturally
selected." And the inheritance of such characters, in-
creased in amount by further variation, may be supposed
in the end to lead to sufficient divergence from the
original stock to constitute new species, just as the
"breeds" of domesticated animals have been brought
into existence by '' artificial selection."

Until Darwin's work appeared Huxley neither affirmed
nor denied the possibility of transmutation of species,
and his scientific work on the lines laid down by
Johannes Miiller and Von Baer kept him more than
occupied, without troubling unduly about the matter.
Even the influence of Herbert Spencer, who held
evolution to be a logical necessity, had failed to make
him adopt positive evolutionary views. Writing long
afterwards on this point he says : —

" I took my stand upon two grounds : — Firstly, that up to
that time, the evidence in favour of transmutation was wholly
insufficient ; and secondly, that no suggestion respecting the
causes of transmutation assumed, which had been made, was in
any way adequate to explain the phenomena. Looking back
at the state of knowledge at that time, I really do not see that
any other conclusion was justifiable " (Darwin's Life and
Letters, ii. p. i88).

In the same place Huxley tells us that the influence
of Lyell,

" was perhaps more potent than any other in keeping alive a
sort of pious conviction that evolution, after all, would turn out
true. I have recently read afresh the first edition of the
Principles of Geology ; and when I consider that this remarkable

44 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

book had been nearly thirty years in everybody's hands, and
that it brings home to any reader of ordinary intelligence a
great principle and a great fact, — the principle that the past
must be explained by the present, unless good cause be shown
to the contrary ; and the fact that so far as our knowledge of
the past history of life on our globe goes, no such cause can be
shown, — I cannot but believe that Lyell, for others, as for my-
self, was the chief agent in smoothing the road for Darwin.
For consistent uniformitarianism postulates Evolution as much
in the organic as in the inorganic world. The origin of a new
species by other than ordinary agencies would be a vastly
greater 'catastrophe' than any of those which Lyell successfully
eliminated from sober geological speculation" (pp. 189-90),

Darwin attached great importance to the opinions of
Lyell, Hooker and Huxley as regards his theory. After
making a deep impression upon Lyell (who afterwards
proclaimed himself a Darwinian, though with important
reservations), and completely converting Hooker, he
writes: "If lean convert Huxley I shall be content"
(Darwin's Life, ii, p. 221). And he subsequently had
good cause for more than usual contentment, as Huxley's
vigorous championship of the new views, when these
were ignorantly or fanatically attacked, brought them
into great prominence and compelled that careful attention
on the part of competent authorities without which their
progress might have been indefinitely delayed.

Huxley, however, was no unreasoning partizan, and,
while accepting the Darwinian theory as a good working
hypothesis, realized the difficulties involved and made
no secret of them. In the Preface (dated April 7,
1893) to the second volume of his Collected Essays, he
remarks : —

"• Those who take the trouble to read the first two essays
(/.<'. * The Darwinian Hypothesis,' and ' The Origin of
Species') published in 1859 and i860, will, I think, do me
the justice to admit that my zeal to secure fair-play for Mr.

THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 45

Darwin did not drive me into the position of a mere advocate ;
and that, while doing justice to the greatness of the argument,
I did not fail to indicate its weak points. I have never seen
any reason for departing from the position which I took up in
these two essays ; and the assertion which I sometimes meet
with nowadays, that I have ' recanted ' or changed my opinions
about Mr. Darwin's views, is quite unintelligible to me."

A lecture " On the Persistent Types of Animal Life"
(Proc. Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-62, pp. 151-3. Sci. Mem.,
ii, IV, p. 90), delivered at the Royal Institution on June
3, of this year, and in part the outcome of his work on
Nautilus (one such type), anticipates one of the objec-
tions afterwards brought against Darwinism, i.e., that it
is not justified by the evidence of geology. The lecture
points out that such persistence is only explicable on
evolutionary grounds, and also lays stress on the imper-
fection of the geological record.

When, later in the year, the Origin made its appear-
ance, Huxley, by a singular piece of good fortune, was
entrusted with the review for the Times.

This was written in Huxley's best style, and the in-
spiration of the subject enabled him to complete it with
great rapidity, in strong contrast to his usual practice.
In it he says : —

" That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us to give a
reason for many apparent anomalies in the distribution of living
beings in space and time, and that it is not contradicted by the
main phenomena of life and organization appear to us to be
unquestionable."

But readers of the book are enjoined, in characteristic
fashion, to maintain that spirit of —

"doubt, which so loves truth, that it neither dares rest in doubt-
ing, nor extinguish itself by unjustified belief."

46 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

And finally : —

" Mr. Darwin abhors mere speculation as nature abhors a
vacuum. He is as greedy of cases and precedents as any con-
stitutional lawyer, and all the principles he lays down are
capable of being brought to the test of observation and experi-
ment. The path he bids us follow professes to be not a mere
airy track, fabricated of ideal cobwebs, but a solid and broad
bridge of facts. If it be so, it will carry us safely over many a
chasm in our knowledge, and lead us to a region free from the
snares of those fascinating but barren virgins, the Final Causes,
against whom a high authority has so justly warned us " (Coll.
Essays, ii, p. i).

This year he was appointed Secretary to the Geological
Society, a new kind of activity in which he rendered
eminent service till 1885, when he resigned his Pre-
sidency of the Royal Society. During the summer he
also took part in a movement initiated by Dr. Carpenter,
to which in part may be traced the origin of the marine
biological stations that now play such an important
role in science. For he spent some time trawling off
Arran, where Carpenter some years before had found
suitable head-quarters in a cottage on Holy Island (in
Lamlash Bay), and in the following winter carried out
investigations on the spawning of herrings in the neigh-
bourhood of Bute, this being the commencement of his
fishery work. At Huxley's request, Sir Roderick
Murchison, then head of the Geological Survey, con-
sented to subsidize this pioneer scheme for a term of
years.

Mention must also be made of the fact that Tyndall
was at this time appointed Professor of Physics in the
Royal School of Mines, a post which he retained till
1868, and this intimate association meant much to
Huxley in a variety of ways, and cemented what was
already a friendship of no common order. One aspect

EXTINCT VERTEBRATES 47

of this is thus amusingly given in a letter to Hooker of
the previous year : —

" Why I value your and Tyndall's and Darwin's friendship
so much is, among other things, that you all pitch into me when
necessary. You may depend upon it, however blue I may look
when in the wrong, it's wrath with myself and nobody else "
(Life, i, p. 157).

The scientific memoirs of the year, chiefly palaeonto-
logical, are as follows : —

1. "On the Stagonolepis Robertsoni (Agassiz) of
the Elgin Sandstones ; and on the Recently Discovered
Footmarks in the Sandstones of Cummingstone " (Q. J.
Geol. Soc, XV, 1859, PP' 440-60. Sci. Mem., ii, v,
p. 94). — The remains of a supposed fossil fish are
here proved to be in reality those of a crocodilian reptile.

2. '* On some Amphibian and Reptilian Remains
from South Africa and Australia" (op. cit., xv, 1859,
pp. 642-9. Read March 3, 1859. '^ci. Mem., ii, vi,
p. 120).

3. " On a New Species of Dicynodon (D. Murrayi),
from near Colesberg, South Africa ; and on the Structure
of the Skull in the Dicynodonts" (op. cit., xv, 1859,
pp. 649-58. Read March 23, 1859. Sci. Mem., ii,

VII, p. 130). — The reptile in question belongs to an
extraordinary extinct group, among which the species of
Dicynodon possess only two teeth, these being in the
form of tusks projecting from the upper jaw.

4. *' On Rhamphorhynchus Bucklandi, a Ptero-
saurian from the Stonefield Slate" (op. cit., xv, 1859,
pp. 658-70. Read March 23, 1859. Sci. Mem., ii,

VIII, p. 141). — This deals with one of the extinct flying
reptiles.

5. "On a Fossil Bird and a Fossil Cetacean from
New Zealand" (op. cit., xv, 1859, pp. 670-7. Read

48 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

March 23, 1859. '^^'' Mem., ii, ix, p. 157).— Two
bones, belonging respectively to a large species of pen-
guin and a porpoise-like Cetacean are described in this
paper.

6. " On the Dermal Armour of Crocodilus Hast-
ingsiae " (op. cit., xv, 1859, pp. 678-80. Read March
23, 1859. ^'^^- Mem., ii, x, p. 166). — Here an account
is given of the bony scutes belonging to an extinct
crocodile.

7. " On the Anatomy and Affinities of the Genus
Pterygotus " (Mems. Geol. Survey U.K., Monograph I,
1859, pp. 1-36. Sci. Mem., ii, xi, p. 170). — This
important monograph describes in detail the structure
of a typical genus of an ancient extinct group, perhaps
most nearly represented at the present day by the king-
crabs. The conclusion is reached that the group may
be regarded as an order of the Crustacea, an opinion
which more recent research has to some extent modified.
The relation to the extinct trilobites is also pointed out.

8. " On Dasyceps Bucklandi (Labyrinthodon Buck-
landi, Lloydy (op. cit., 1859, pp. 52-6. Sci. Mem., ii,
XIII, p. 263). — The memoir describes the skull of one
of those extinct armoured Amphibians which were
dominant until their supremacy of the land was usurped
by Reptiles.

9. " On a Fragment of a Lower Jaw of a Large
Labyrinthodont from Cubbington" (op. cit., 1859, pp.
56-7. Sci. Mem., ii, xvi, p. 269). — This paper has
reference to another Amphibian belonging to the group
just mentioned.

10. " Observations on the Development of Some Parts
of the Skeleton of Fishes " (Q. J. Micros. Sci., vii,
1859, pp. 33-46. Sci. Mem., ii, xv, p. 271). — The
greater part of this particularly interesting memoir deals

DEVELOPMENT OF FISHES 49

with the development of the tail of a species of stickle-
back. It is a familiar fact that the tail of a shark or dog-
fish, members of a very ancient group, is externally
markedly unsymmetrical, there being a large upper lobe
into or towards which the vertebral column is bent.
The tails of the more modern bony fishes, e.g., herring,
mackerel, and stickleback, are externally symmetrical,
and the backbone appears to end off where its upper and
lower lobes begin. A study of the development of the
latter shows, however, that this kind of tail is merely an
improvement of the older type, and that internally it is
markedly unsymmetrical.

11. " On the Dermal Armour of Jacare and Caiman,
with Notes on the Specific and Generic Characters of
Recent Crocodilia" (J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), iv, i860,
pp. 1-28. Read February 15, 1859. Sci. Mem., ii, xvi,
p. 286). — The research embodied in this memoir was
led up to by previous work upon extinct crocodilians.

12. "On the Anatomy and Development of Pyro-
soma" (Trans. Linn. Soc, xxiii, 1862, pp. 193-250.
Read December i, 1859. Sci. Mem., ii, xvii, p. 313).
— This classical monograph deals with a floating colonial
tunicate or ascidian, which is one of the sources of the
phosphorescence of the sea. The subject is worked out
in detail, and alternation of generations established for
the life-history.

CHAPTER VII

THE DEFENCE OF DARWIN [1860].

The year i860 was destined to prove of great impor-
tance for the progress of the new theory. During that
year Huxley expounded and championed Darwin's views
to audiences of two kinds, i.e., to his familiar auditory
at the Royal Institution, and before the British Associa-
tion at Oxford.

On Friday, February 10, he delivered a Friday
Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution " On Species
and Races, and their Origin " (Proc. Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-
62, pp. 1 95-200 J Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., v, i860,
pp. 344-6. Sci. Mem., ii, xviii, p. 388). — -After a lucid
exposition of the nature of the Darwinian hypothesis, and
some of the main facts upon which it is founded, the
lecture ends with an eloquent appeal for fair treatment,
without any shirking of the logical consequences of
such arguments as may be regarded valid : —

" Another, and unfortunately a large class of persons take
fright at the logical consequences of such a doctrine as that put
forth by Mr. Darwin. If all species have arisen in this way, say
they — Man himself must have done so ; and he and all the ani-
mated world must have had a common origin. Most assuredly.
No question of it.

*' But I would ask, does this logical necessity add one single
difficulty of importance to those which already confront us on
all sides whenever we contemplate our relations to the surround-
ing universe ? I think not. Let man's mistaken vanity, his
foolish contempt for the material world, impel him to struggle

50

THE DEFENCE OF DARWIN 51

as he will, he strives in vain to break through the ties which
hold him to matter and the lower forms of life. . . .

" I have said that the man of science is the sworn interpreter
of nature in the high court of reason. But of what avail is his
honest speech if ignorance is the assessor of the judge, and pre-
judice foreman of the jury ? I hardly know of a great physical
truth, whose universal reception has not been preceded by an
epoch in which most estimable persons have maintained that the
phenomena investigated were directly dependent on the Divine
Will, and that the attempt to investigate them was not only
futile, but blasphemous. And there is a wonderful tenacity of
life about this sort of opposition to physical science. Crushed
and maimed in every battle, it yet seems never to be slain ; and
after a hundred defeats it is at this day as rampant, though
happily not so mischievous, as in the time of Galileo.

'* But to those whose life is spent, to use Newton's noble
words, in picking up here a pebble and there a pebble on the
shores of the great ocean of truth — who watch, day by day,
the slow but sure advance of that mighty tide, bearing on its
bosom the thousand treasures wherewith man ennobles and
beautifies his life — it would be laughable, if it were not so sad,
to see the little Canutes of the hour enthroned in solemn state,
bidding that great wave to stay, and threatening to check its
beneficent progress. The wave rises and they fly ; but unlike
the brave old Dane, they learn no lesson of humility : the
throne is pitched at what seems a safe distance, and the folly is
repeated.

" Surely it is the duty of the public to discourage everything
of this kind, to discredit these foolish meddlers who think they
do the Almighty a service by preventing a thorough study of
his works."

And again, after alluding to the contests which the
new renascence of scientific thought was likely to in-
volve : —

" But I verily believe that come what will, the part which
England may play in the battle is a grand and a noble one. She
may prove to the world that for one people, at any rate,
despotism and demagogy are not the necessary alternatives of
government : that freedom and order are not incompatible ; that

52 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

reverence is the handmaid of knowledge ; that free discussion
is the life of truth, and of true unity in a nation."

It is a somewhat curious fact that, but for the urgent
request of Robert Chambers, Huxley had intended not
to champion the cause of evolution in the now famous
debate at the British Association in the summer, for he
realized very fully the difficulties presented by a mixed
audience, and the argumetitum ad hom'mem that was sure to
be employed on the other side. Preliminary skirmishing
took place on Thursday, June 28, when, in the discus-
sion that followed a paper by Dr. Daubeny, read before
Section D, Owen stated as a fact that the gorilla's brain
" presented more differences, as compared with the brain
of man, than it did when compared with the brains of
the lowest and most problematical of the Quadrumana."
Huxley's special knowledge enabled him flatly to con-
tradict so unwarranted an assertion, this " unusual pro-
cedure" being fully justified subsequently.

The historic debate took place on the following Satur-
day, when Wilberforce, the then Bishop of Oxford,
crammed to the muzzle by Owen with undigested and
inaccurate information, spoke,

" For full half an hour with inimitable spirit, emptiness and
unfairness. ... In a light, scoffing tone, florid and fluent, he
assured us there was nothing in the idea of evolution ; rock-
pigeons were what rock-pigeons had always been. Then, turn-
ing to his antagonist with a smiling insolence, he begged to
know, was it through his grandfather or his grandmother that
he claimed his descent from a monkey ? " ( Reminiscences of
a Grandmother, Macmillan's Magazine, October 1898).

Such mistaken flippancy helped the evolutionary cause
in no small degree. Ignorance might be condoned, but
not such an unworthy resort to the resources of mob

THE DEFENCE OF DARWIN 53

oratory. As Professor Farrar afterwards wrote to Mr.
Leonard Huxley : —

" His false humour was an attempt to arouse the antipathy
about degrading luoman to the quadrumana. Your father's
reply showed there was vulgarity as well as folly in the Bishop's
words, and the impression distinctly was, that the Bishop's
party, as they left the room, felt abashed, and recognised that
the Bishop had forgotten to behave like a perfect gentleman "
(Life, i, pp. 183-4, footnote).

Huxley himself was the first to realize the advantage
gained by the rhetorical error of the Bishop, remarking
to Sir Benjamin Brodie, " The Lord hath delivered him
into mine hands." No absolutely reliable account exists
of Huxley's reply, which after dealing with the scientific
issues raised, ended with a retort that is not likely to
be forgotten. Huxley himself was of opinion that the
following rendering by the late John Richard Green
approached most nearly to accuracy, but it is practically
certain that the word " equivocal" was not employed : —

" I asserted — and I repeat — that a man has no reason to be
ashamed of having an ape for his grandfather. If there were
an ancestor whom I should feel shame in recalling it would
rather be a man — a man of restless and versatile intellect— who,
not content with an equivocal success in his own sphere of
activity, plunges into scientific questions with which he has no
real acquaintance, only to obscure them by an aimless rhetoric,
and distract the attention of his hearers from the real point at
issue by eloquent digressions and skilled appeals to religious
prejudice" (Life, i, p. 185).

Hooker, from the botanical side, completed the dis-
comfiture of the anti-evolutionary forces.

The Oxford meeting proved Huxley to be a debater
of the first order, and from this time on he was justly
regarded as the champion of Darwinian principles, and

54 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

as illustrating the love of fair-play which is character-
istic of a British audience, it is worth noting that on
this occasion he was applauded almost as warmly as his
antagonist on the conclusion of his speech. Though the
personal tone imparted to the discussion, and for which he
was not responsible, was distinctly repugnant to him, it
must be confessed that he was essentially a fighting man,
who rejoiced in " smiting the Amalekites," to use his own
expression. "Without his keen support at this critical
juncture it is possible that the most luminous biological
theory of the last century might have been considerably
retarded in its progress, much to the detriment of science
and intellectual advance in general.

The vigorous essay on " The Origin of Species " (Coll.
Essays, ii, p. 22), belonging to the same year, was a
further important contribution to the promulgation and
defence of Darwinism, of which the following well-
known passages will always be quoted : —

" In this nineteenth century, as at the dawn of modern
physical science, the cosmogony of the semi-barbarous Hebrew
is the incubus of the philosopher and the opprobrium of the
orthodox. ... It is true that if philosophers have suffered,
their cause has been amply revenged. Extinguished theologians
lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes
about that of Hercules ; and history records that whenever
science and orthodoxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has
been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed, if not
annihilated ; scotched, if not slain."

And, after alluding to the recurrence of untenable
idea : —

" Philosophers, on the other hand, have no such aggressive
tendencies. With eyes fixed on the noble goal to which ' per
aspera et ardua ' they tend, they may, now and then, be stirred
to momentary wrath by the unnecessary obstacles with which
the ignorant or the malicious encumber, if they cannot bar, the

THE DEFENCE OF DARWIN 55

difficult path ; but why should their souls be deeply vexed ?
The majesty of fact is on their side, and the elemental forces
of Nature are working for them. . . . Harmonious order
governing eternally continuous progress — the web and woof of
matter and force interweaving by slow degrees, without a broken
thread, that veil which lies between us and the Infinite — that
universe which alone we know or can know ; such is the picture
which science draws of the world, and in proportion as any part
of that picture is in unison with the rest, so may we feel sure
that it is rightly painted. Shall Biology alone remain out of
harmony with her sister sciences ? "

The following passages are of particular interest, being
in some sort prophetic : —

" Mr Darwin's position might, we think, have been even
stronger than it is if he had not embarrassed himself with the
aphorism, Naiura non fac'it saltum, which turns up so often in
his pages. We believe, as we have said above, that Nature
does make jumps now and then, and a recognition of the fact
is of no small importance in disposing of many minor objections
to the doctrine of transmutation. . . . What if the orbit of
Darwinism should be a little too circular ? What if species
should offer residual phenomena, here and there, not explicable
by natural selection ? . . . And viewed as a whole, we do not
believe that, since the publication of Von Baer's Researches on
Development, thirty years ago, any work has appeared calculated
to exert so large an influence, not only on the future of Biology,
but in extending the domination of Science over regions of
thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated."

The defence of Darwinism in various ways, and before
diverse audiences, by no means occupied the whole of
Huxley's time, lecture work apart, during i860. This
year, for example, witnessed the completion of the arrange-
ments for bringing out the Natural History Review, regard-
ing which enough has been said elsewhere (p. 39), and
the first number of which appeared in January, 1861.

Notice must also be made of a paper " On the Structure
of the Mouth and Pharynx of the Scorpion" (Q. J.

56 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Micros. Sci., viii, i860, pp. 250-4. Sci. Mem., ii, xix,
P- 395)- — This cleared up some obscure points in the
structure of a common type, which in most respects had
already been studied with considerable thoroughness.
A scorpion feeds upon the juices of its prey, in adapta-
tion to which its mouth is shown to be exceedingly
small, and to open into a gullet connected with a pharynx
serving as a sort of suction-pump.

Another memoir of the year is " On a New Species
of Macrauchenia (M. Bolivensis) " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xvii,
l86i, pp. 73-84. Read November 21, i860. Sci.
Mem., ii, xxi, p. 403). — The extinct type dealt with,
subsequently placed in a special group, is given as an
example of the necessity for caution in making deductions,
for it combines cameline and equine characters.

It is further very interesting to find that Huxley
rendered invaluable service to Herbert Spencer by going
through the proofs of the First Principles, and offering
valuable criticisms thereon. Similar good offices were
continued for a long series of years.

The desirability of higher education for women is now
so widely approved in this country, and so largely carried
into practice, that Huxley's views on the subject, ex-
pressed in a letter to Sir Charles Lyell (March 17, i860),
seem imbued with the spirit of to-day. The letter
primarily referred to the question of admitting women
to the membership of learned societies, in which matter
there is even yet a good deal of conservatism, but its
interest rather lies in the broader questions touched upon.
The writer expresses a strong desire that the intellectual
advancement and development of women should be pro-
moted, and expresses his intention of giving his daughters
a proper training in physical science, adding the following
statement of belief as to the result that might be expected

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 57

to follow the general adoption of such a plan : " If other
people would do the like, the next generation would see
women fit to be the companions of men in all their pur-
suits— though I don't think men have anything to fear
from their competition." The letter concludes by
strongly doubting whether such an educational advance
would find general favour (Life, i, pp. 211-12).

Unfortunately the year was not to pass without deep
personal sorrow, for on September 15, Huxley's first-
born son died very suddenly from scarlet fever. The
birth of a second son later in the year afforded some
consolation, nor was there wanting the sympathy of as
staunch friends as any man ever had.

In a long and candid letter, in answer to one received
from Charles Kingsley, we find the principles of agnostic
philosophy fully set forth, and a statement of entire belief
in the absolute justice of Nature.

CHAPTER VIII

DISSEMINATION AND SUPPORT OF EVOLUTIONARY
DOCTRINES [186I-2].

The crushing bereavement mentioned in the last chapter
increased rather than diminished the amount of work
done by Huxley during the following year (1861).
Partly, no doubt, because he recognized that work is
the only panacea for human ills, and partly owing to his
intensely energetic nature, constructed as he was " on
the high-pressure tubular-boiler principle," to use his
own description. Here, too, we may possibly trace the
influence of Carlyle. The vigour with which fresh
labours were begun and old ones continued, was partly
the result of a Christmas vacation spent in mountain
climbing in Snowdonia.

Darwin, Lyell and Hooker, all entered kindly remon-
strances against the immense amount of work not only
undertaken, but actually accomplished, and there is no
doubt that their advice was fully justified, for Huxley
grew old before his time, and ultimately broke down at
a comparatively early age. But every man must work
in his own manner, and the advancement of science was
very possibly better served by concentrated efforts.

Hooker's remonstrance is of particular interest, for it
expresses in some sense what many have felt : —

" Do take the counsel of a quiet looker-on and withdraw to
your books and studies in pure Natural History ; let modes of
thought alone. You may make a very good naturalist or a very

58

EVOLUTIONARY LECTURES 59

good metaphysician (of that I know nothing, don't despise
me), but you have neither time nor place for both " (Life, i,
p. 229).

There is, however, no doubt as to the " good natura-
list," but regarding the rest opinion would scarcely be
unanimous.

Much of the work of 186 1 naturally had reference to
evolution, whether by way of exposition or in the form
of research lending support to Darwin's views.

In the early part of the year he lectured to working-
men on " The Relation of Man to the rest of the Animal
Kingdom," a subject to which he had for some time
devoted special attention, and which was naturally the
central point about which the controversial war waged
most bitterly. On this particular audience he obviously
made a deep impression, and humorously remarks in a
letter to his wife — " By next Friday evening they will all
be convinced that they are monkeys" (Life, i, p. 190).

Two lectures, included in his published works, come
under the pro-Darwinian utterances. One was a Friday
Evening Discourse (February 8) at the Royal Institution,
" On the Nature of the Earliest Stages of the Develop-
ment of Animals" (Proc. Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-62,
PP- 3i5"7- Sci. Mem., ii, xx, p. 400). — Taking the
development of the free-swimming colonial ascidian Pyro-
soma as a text {cf. p. 49), the early evolution of the
individual is described, and shown to be a matter of
gradual up-building, step by step (epigenesis), a passage
from simple to complex, and not a mere increase in size
(evolution in the older sense). In short, the discourse
illustrates the principles of development first laid down
by Caspar Friedrich Wolff {cf. p. 42).

The second lecture, delivered at South Kensington,
was entitled, "A Lobster: or the Study of Zoology"

6o THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

(Coll. Essays, viii, p. 1 96). The particular volume of
Collected Essays in which this is reprinted largely con-
sists of popular lectures, and the following extract from
the Preface (dated April, 1894) shows that Huxley
attached great importance to discourses of the kind, if
undertaken in a proper spirit : —

**.... I have not been one of those fortunate persons who
are able to regard a popular lecture as a mere hors-d'auvre, un-
worthy of being ranked among the seriousefforts of a philosopher ;
and who keep their fame as scientific hierophants unsullied by
attempts — at least of the successful sort — to be understanded of
the people. On the contrary, I found that the task of putting
the truths learned in the field, the laboratory and the museum,
into language which, without bating a jot of scientific accuracy
shall be generally intelligible, taxed such scientific and literary
faculty as I possess to the uttermost ; indeed my experience
has furnished me with no better corrective of the tendency to
scholastic pedantry which besets all those who are absorbed in
pursuits remote from the common ways of men, and become
habituated to think and speak in the technical dialect of their
own little world, as if there were no other."

In this lecture the anatomy and physiology of a
lobster are reviewed, and used to illustrate some of the
general principles of biology, after which the proper
methods of teaching physical science in general and
zoology in particular are laid down, and the claims of
science to an important place in education vindicated.
Those who are interested in the complex educational
problems, the solution of which exercises us to-day,
would do well to study this essay, now over forty years
old.

The essence of the much debated " type-system,"
with the establishment of which Huxley had so much
to do, is embodied in the following sentence : —

♦' The great matter is, to make teaching real and practical, by

TEACHING OF SCIENCE 6i

fixing the attention of the student on particular facts ; but at
the same time it should be rendered broad and comprehensive,
by constant reference to the generalizations of which all par-
ticular facts are illustrations."

The respective uses of lectures, demonstrations and
examinations, as parts of the educational machinery, are
then discussed, and the lecture concludes with a
protest against existing systems of instruction, and
an eloquent appeal that science be given her proper
place : —

*' Modern civilization rests upon physical science ; take away
her gifts to our own country, and our position among the
leading nations of the world is gone to-morrow ; for it is
physical science only that makes intelligence and moral energy
stronger than brute force. The whole of modern thought is
steeped in science ; it has made its way into the works of our
best poets, and even the mere man of letters, who affects to
ignore and despise science, is unconsciously impregnated with
her spirit, and indebted for his best products to her methods."

In the British Association Meeting of i860, Huxley's
unrivalled anatomical knowledge had enabled him to
flatly contradict the statement made by Owen that man
is marked off from all other animals by the structure of
his brain, a promise being at the same time made that in
due course the contradiction should be fully justified.
This, of course, led to renewed investigations on the
subject now to be published.

The first contribution of the kind to science, " On the
Zoological Relations of Man with the Lower Animals,"
appeared in the first number of the Natural History Re-
view (186 1, pp. 67-84. Sci. Mem., ii, xxvi, p. 471),
and in this, after discussing a number of the leading
features of human anatomy, the author accepts the old
Linnean view " that Man is to be regarded as a genus of

62 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

the same order as that which contains the Quadrumana
[i.e., apes and monkeys]."

A technical memoir, " On the Brain of Ateles
paniscus " (Proc. Zool. Soc, l86i, pp. 247-60, Sci.
Mem., ii, xxvii, p. 493), proves that certain structures
asserted to be peculiar to man are present in the brain of
this species of spider-monkey, a comparatively low type.

The following important palsontological memoirs also
made their appearance in 1861 : —

1. " On Pteraspis Dunensis (Archaeoteuthis Dunensis,
Roemer)^' (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xvii. i86r, pp. 163-6.
Read January 23, 1861. Sci. Mem., ii, xxii, p. 417).
— The fossil described was shown to be the head-shield
of an ancient vertebrate, and not the pen of an extinct
cuttle-fish, as supposed by the first describer. The
affinity with sturgeons suggested has not been justified
by subsequent research, Pteraspis and its allies being
now regarded as constituting a group lower in the scale
than any known fishes.

2. ** Preliminary Essay upon the Systematic Arrange-
ment of the Fishes of the Devonian Epoch " (Mems.
Geol. Survey U.K., Decade X., 1861. Sci. Mem., ii,
XXIII, p. 421). — In this important memoir the founda-
tions of a rational classification of extinct fishes, especially
those known as Ganoids (of which sturgeons are the
best-known living examples), are laid down. In the same
decade two memoirs on particular extinct types of fish
are included, i.e. : —

3. " Glyptolsemus Kinnairdi" (op. cit., pp. 41-6. Sci.
Mem., ii, xxiv, p. 461) j and 4. " Phaneropleuron
Andersoni" (op. cit., pp. 47-9. Sci. Mem., ii, xxv,
p. 467).

Huxley had already made a special study of the verte-
brate skull (cf. p. 40), and in the course of this year con-

MAN AND LOWER ANIMALS 6^

tinued his work in that direction, investigating cranial
development in the chick. This subsequently led on to
particularly valuable and epoch-making work on the
classification of birds.

Examinations and continued assistance given to Spencer
in the matter of proof-sheets helped to swell the enormous
amount of work done during the year.

1862.

In January, 1862, two lectures were given in Edinburgh,
" On the Relation of Man to the Lower Animals " (Coll.
Essays, vii, p. 77).— After a preliminary sketch of de-
velopment, the physical structure of man is compared
with that of the apes, and the conclusion reached that
there is no greater structural barrier between the two
than between the higher apes and ordinary monkeys.
Darwinism is then advanced as the only hypothesis as to
the origin of species " which has any scientific existence."
No attempt is made to slur over the provisional nature of
that hypothesis, the weak points in which are fully set
forth ; and after denial of mere partizanship Huxley
gives in brief the reasons which induced him provisionally
to accept the hypothesis :—

" . . . . the last position in which I wish to find myself is
that of an advocate for Mr. Darwin's, or any other views ; if
by an advocate is meant one whose business it is to smooth over
real difficuhies and to persuade where he cannot convince.

" I adopt Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, therefore, subject to the
production of proof that physiological species may be produced
by selective breeding ; just as a physical philosopher may accept
the undulatory theory of light subject to the proof of the
existence of the hypothetical ether ; or as the chemist adopts
the atomic theory, subject to the proof of the existence of
atoms ; and for exactly the same reasons, namely, that it has an

64 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

immense amount of prima fade probability : that it is the only
means at present within reach of reducing the chaos of ob-
served facts to order ; and lastly, that it is the most power-
ful instrument of investigation which has been presented to
naturalists since the invention of the natural system of classifi-
cation, and the commencement of the systematic study of
embryology."

The masterly conclusion of the second lecture, which
endeavours to combat the objection, " that the belief
in the unity of origin of man and brutes involves the
brutalization and degradation of the former," contains some
fine passages, which are widely known. After the
absence of an absolute physical or even psychical
boundary line between man and apes is strongly insisted
upon, we read : —

" At the same time, no one is more strongly convinced than
I am of the vastness of the gulf between civilized man and the
brutes ; or is more certain that whether from them or not, he
is assuredly not of them. No one is less disposed to think
lightly of the present dignity, or despairingly of the future
hopes, of the only consciously intelligent denizen of this world."

And again : —

" Nay more, thoughtful men, once escaped from the blinding
influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
whence Man has sprung, the best evidence of the splendour of
his capacities ; and will discern in his long progress through the
Past, a reasonable ground of faith in his attainment ot a nobler
Future. . . . Our reverence for the nobility of manhood will
not be lessened by the knowledge that Man is, in substance and
in structure, one with the brutes ; for he alone possesses the
marvellous endowment of intelligible and rational speech, whereby,
in the secular period of his existence, he has slowly accumulated
and organised the experience which is almost wholly lost with
the cessation of every individual life in other animals ; so that,
now, he stands raised upon it as on a mountain top, far above the
level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his grosser

ANTIQUITY OF MAN 6s

nature by reflecting here and there, a ray from the infinite source
of truth."

The Edinburgh audience was enthusiastic, but the
publication of the reports of the lectures was followed by
bitter and indeed scurrilous attacks, including such choice
expressions as " foul outrage," " vilest and beastliest
paradox," and " offensive, mischievous and inexcusable
exhibition." Huxley answered these attacks in the Scots-
man, sarcastically welcoming such onslaughts as affording
" the best security for the dissemination of my views
through regions which they might not otherwise reach."

During January of this same year (1862), he began
to work at ethnology, a subject in which he • after-
wards attained eminence, and his interest in which was
apparently first aroused during the voyage of the Ratt/e-
snake. The special study of human anatomy made in
connection with the evolution controversies fitted him in
no common degree for investigations of the kind. As to
the immediate cause of this new divergence. Sir Charles
Lyell, then writing his Antiquity of Man, had asked
Huxley to help him in some of the anatomical matters,
requesting in particular a diagram of the fragmentary
prehistoric skull which had recently been discovered in
the Neanderthal.

The results of the examination of this skull, and of
another from the cave of Engis in the Meuse Valley,
were included in a lecture at the Royal Institution, " On
the Fossil Remains of Man " (Proc. Roy. Inst., iii,
1858-62, pp. 420-2. Read Friday, February 7, 1862.
Sci. Mem., ii, xxviii, p. $0^^. — Here is the general
conclusion reached : —

" Thus it appears that the oldest known races of Man
differed comparatively but little in cranial conformation from

66 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

those savage races now living, whom they seem to have
resembled most in habits ; and it may be concluded that these
most ancient races at present known were at least as remote
from the original stock of the human species as they are from
us."

In short, the anatomical as well as the geological
evidence pointed to the immense antiquity of the human
species, a view which is now universally accepted.

The substance of the foregoing lecture, as of the two
delivered the previous year in Edinburgh, was included
in Mail's Place in Nature, which was completed by
Huxley in 1862, but of which it will be more convenient
to speak under the year of publication (1863).

The controversies about the supposed peculiar characters
of the human brain were finally concluded at the British
Association Meeting held in Cambridge during this
year, when Professor Flower publicly demonstrated that
these characters are in fact also to be found in
apes. A sarcastic allusion to the unfair tactics of anti-
Darwinians appears in a letter written after that meet-
ing : — " A ' Society for the propagation of common
honesty in all parts of the world ' was established at
Cambridge " (Life, i, p. 199). The commodity in ques-
tion would appear to be more abundant now than then,
although this society was not destined to survive for long.

Half a century ago the facts of paleontology then
known were often construed adversely to evolution, and
early in 1 862 this led Huxley to give, as one of the
Secretaries of the Geological Society acting for the absent
President an " Anniversary Address," which has since
become famous (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xviii, 1862, pp.
xl-liv. Delivered February 21, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii,
XXIX, p. 512. Coll. Essays, " Geological Contem-
poraneity," viii, p. 272). It may be described as a

GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY 67

searching inquiry into palseontological principles and
methods, or as the author epigrammatically put it, an
attempt to answer the question, " Now, Messieurs les
Palfeontologues, what the devil do you really know ? "
(Life, i, p. 204). Some of the sentences in Sir Charles
Lyell's expressed opinion of the address will best indicate
its scope and the manner of its reception (Lyell's Life
and Letters, ii, p. 356) : —

" Huxley delivered a brilliant critical discourse on what
palaeontology has and has not done, and proved the value of
negative evidence, how much the progressive development system
has been pushed too far, . . . the persistency of many forms
high and low throughout time, how little we know of the
beginning of life upon the earth, how often events called contem-
poraneous in Geology are applied to things which, instead
of coinciding in time, may have happened ten millions of years
apart, etc. ... I never remember an address listened to
with such applause, though there were many private protests
against some of his bold opinions."

Although the enormous strides made by the subject of
late years have necessitated a certain amount of modifica-
tion in the views advanced, as was of course only to be
expected, this address will always remain classical.

The following contributions to palaeontology were
published during the year : —

1. "On New Labyrinthodonts from the Edinburgh
Coal-field" (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xviii, 1862, pp. 291-6.
Read May 7, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxx, p. 530).

2. " On a Stalk-eyed Crustacean from the Carboni-
ferous Strata near Paisley (op. cit., xviii, 1862, pp. 420-2.
Read June 18, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxi, p. 536).

3. " On the Premolar Teeth of Diprotodon, and on a
New Species of that Genus" (op. cit., xviii, 1862, pp.
422-7. Read June 18, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxii, p.

539)-

68 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

4. " Description of a New Specimen of Glyptodon "
(Proc. Roy. Soc, xii, 1862-3, PP- 316-26. Read
December 18, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxiii, p. 546).

5. " Description of Anthracosaurus Russelli, a New
Labyrinthodont from the Lanarkshire Coal-field " (Q. J.
Geol. Soc, xix, 1863, pp. 56-68. Read December 3,
1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxv, p. 558).

And to these may be added an ethnological paper : —

6. " Letter on the Human Remains found in the Shell-
Mounds " (Trans. Ethnol. Soc, ii, 1863, pp. 265-6.
Dated June 28, 1862. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxiv, p. $5^)'
These remains are described as being Papuan in
type.

The work of the earlier part of 1862 was accomplished
under the disadvantages entailed by very indifferent health,
though fortunately some improvement resulted from
a July trip to Switzerland with Tyndall. Part of the
duties carried out in the second half of the summer were
also of out-door character. For as a member of the
Fishery Commission (the first of many Commissions on
which he afterwards served), dealing with the herring
question, he spent some weeks on the Scottish coast for
the purpose of observation and inquiry.

In the autumn, too, he entered into the full duties of
the Hunterian Professorship at the College of Surgeons,
thus having to give some twenty-four lectures on com-
parative anatomy instead of twelve. This involved a
vast amount of dissection, mostly done in the evening,
for Huxley was never content to rely upon others for
facts where it was possible to get information at first
hand. The substance of these lectures was afterwards
(1864) published as Lectures on the Eslements of Comparative
Anatomy.

The course of lectures on evolution to working-men,

LECTURES TO WORKING-MEN 69

entitled, " On our Knowledge of the Causes of the
Phenomena of Organic Nature," delivered at the end of
1862, was perhaps the most widely appreciated effort of
the year. They were taken down in shorthand by one
of the auditory, and published with Huxley's permission,
but he himself had nothing to do with preparing them
for the press. Notwithstanding this, they had a wide
vogue in this and other countries, and are included in
vol. ii. of the Collected Essays (p. 303)*

Huxley seems to have been rather surprised by the
wide demand for these lectures when they appeared in
print, for in a letter to Darwin (dated December 2,
1862), he says : —

" I have no interest in them, and do not desire or intend
that they should be widely circulated. . . . There is really
nothing new in them nor anything worth your attention, but if
in glancing over them at any time you should see anything to
object to, I should like to know" (Life, i, p. 206).

And again to Hooker (January, 1863) : —

" I never imagined the lectures as delivered would be worth
bringing out at all. . . ." (Life, i, p. 207).

There can be no question, however, as to the general
appreciation of Huxley's popular presentment of Dar-
winism, from the working-men who made up the audience
up to Darwin himself, who wrote (December 18,
1862):—

" I have read Nos. IV. and V. They are simply perfect.
They ought to be largely advertised ; but it is very good of
nie to say so, for I threw down No. IV. with this reflection,
' What is the good of my writing a thundering big book, when
everything is in this green little book so despicable for its size ? '
In the name of all that is good and bad I may as well shut up
shop altogether" (Life, i, p. 207).

70 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

In the Preface (dated April 7, 1893) to vol. ii. of
the Collected Essays^ in speaking of these very lectures,
Huxley suggests a course that many would be well
advised to follow : —

" It would seem that many people must have found them
useful thirty years ago ; and, thoagh the sixties appear now to
be reckoned by many of the rising generation as a part of the
dark ages, I am not without some grounds for suspecting that
there yet remains a fair sprinkling even of ' philosophic thinkers '
to whom it may be a profitable, perhaps even a novel, task to
descend from the heights of speculation and go over the A li C
of the great biological problem as it was set before a body of
shrewd artizans at that remote epoch."

Two paragraphs, on the highest aim of life and the
proper attitude to maintain towards scientific speculation,
respectively, are particularly well worth quoting : —

*' So far as I can venture to offer an opinion on such a matter,
the purpose of our being in existence, the highest object that
human beings can set before themselves, is not the pursuit of
any such chimera as the annihilation of the unknown ; but it
is simply the unwearied endeavour to remove its boundaries a
little further from our little sphere of action.

"Men of science do not pledge themselves to creeds; they
are bound by articles of no sort ; there is not a single belief
that it is not a bounden duty with them to hold with a light
hand and to part with cheerfully, the moment it is really proved
to be contrary to any fact, great or small. And if, in course
of time I see good reasons for such a proceeding, I shall have
no hesitation in coming before you, and pointing out any change
in my opinion without finding the slightest occasion to blush
for so doing. So I say that we accept this view as we accept
any other, so long as it will help us, and we feel bound to retain
it only so long as it will serve our great purpose — the improve-
ment of man's estate and the widening of his knowledge. The
moment this, or any other conception, ceases to be useful for
these purposes, away with it to the four winds ; we care not
what becomes of it ! "

VALUE OF DARWIN'S WORK 71

The subsequent progress of events has amply justified
the peroration to the last lecture : —

"... In conclusion, let me say that you inay go away with
it as my mature conviction, that Mr. Darwin's work is the
greatest contribution which has been made to biological science
since the publication of the Regne Animal of Cuvier, and since
that of the History of Development of Von Baer. I believe that
if you strip it of its theoretical part it still remains one of the
greatest encyclopcedias of biological doctrine that any one man
ever brought forth ; and I believe that, if you take it as the
embodiment of an hypothesis, it is destined to be the guide of
biological and psychological speculation for the next three or
four generations."

CHAPTER IX

man's place in nature ETHNOLOGY VIEWS ON

EDUCATION [1863-6].

The first important event of 1863 was the publication of
Huxley's first book, Alaii's Place in Nature (Coll. Essays,
vii. I, II, and iii, pp. i, et seq.). The second and third
parts of this (" On the Relations of Man to the Lower
Animals," and "On some Fossil Remains of Man") em-
bodied material already brought before the public {cf. pp.
59, 63, 6<,), and to these was prefixed an essay " On
the Natural History of the Man-like Apes." To what
has elsewhere been said about Parts II. and III., it
may be added that the latter includes the description of
a very thorough method devised by Huxley of describing
and comparing skulls with reference to a number of
definite axes, and also a brief sketch of the distribution
of the existing races of mankind, classified according to
the characters of their skulls, complexion and hair.

The first essay gives a general account of the man-like
apes, commencing with a historical sketch of the gradual
progress of our knowledge concerning them.

Huxley was warned of the attacks that would follow if
he decided to publish. Of the neglect of that warning,
and the ensuing adverse criticism, he writes sardonically
as follows in the Preface to vol. vii. of the Collected Essays
(first printed 1894) : —

" But, as I have confessed elsewhere, when I was a young
man, there was just a little — a mere souppn — in my composition

72

MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 73

of that tenacity of purpose which has another name ; and I felt
sure that all the evil things prophesied would not be so painful
to me as the giving up that which I had resolved to do, upon
grounds which I conceived to be right. . . . The Boreas of
criticism blew his hardest blasts of misrepresentation and ridicule
for some years ; and I was even as one of the wicked. Indeed,
it surprises me, at times, to think how any one who had sunk
so low could since have emerged into, at any rate, relative
respectability."

The year was spent in vigorous continuance of the
numerous varieties of work already begun, much time
being spent during the summer and autumn on the duties
of the Fishery Commission. One important memoir was
completed, — " On the Osteology of the Genus
Glyptodon," the gigantic extinct armadillo of South
America (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, civ, 1865, pp. 31-70.
Sci. Mem., iii, iii, p. 37). This was received by the
Royal Society at the end of December, but not read till
the following month.

The death of Huxley's brother George in August
removed one who had in many ways lightened the burden
of his early struggles for a foothold in the scientific world.

1864.

During this year still more time was given to fishery
work, and there is also evidence of increasing interest in
ethnological matters. The contributions to science were
very considerable in amount.

The first volume of the Lectures on Comparative Anatomy
(the only one published), which had been so long in pre-
paration {see p. 68), at last made its appearance, and also
an Atlas of Osteology, another product of the same line of
activity.

An essay entitled " Criticisms on the Origin of

74 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Species" (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 80), deals more particularly
with difficulties advanced by Prof. Kolliker and M.
Flourens. Of the scientific eminence of the former it is
superfluous to speak, but at that date he seems to have
misunderstood Darwin in several points. Huxley, con-
sequently, though without sparing full criticism, treated
his views with consideration, but very properly handled
Flourens in quite another manner : —

" Strongly and freely as we have ventured to disagree with
Professor Kolliker, we have always done so with regret, and
we trust without violating that respect which is due, not only
to his scientific eminence and to the careful study which he has
devoted to the subject, but to the perfect fairness of his argu-
mentation, and the generous appreciation of the worth of Mr,
Darwin's labours which he always displays. It would be
satisfactory to say as much for M. Flourens. But the Perpetual
Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences deals with Mr.
Darwin as the first Napoleon would have treated an ' ideologue ' ;
and while displaying a painful weakness of logic and shallowness
of information, assumes a tone of authority, which always
touches upon the ludicrous, and sometimes passes the limits of
good breeding."

Of scientific memoirs we have the following : —

1. " Further Remarks upon the Human Remains from
the Neanderthal " (Nat. Hist. Rev., iv, 1864, pp. 429-46.
Sci. Mem., ii, xxxvi, p. 573)- — This completes the
work of a previous paper {cf. p. 6^), and in it Huxley
thus enjoins the maintenance of a non-committal attitude : —

" The duty of the anatomist appears to me to lie as little in
eagerly building theories upon these variations of human structure,
as in ignoring them when they are obvious. Let them be
noted and estimated at their just weight — the future will tell
us their meaning."

2. " On the Angwdntibo (Arctocebus Calabarensis,
Gray) of Old Calabar" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864, pp. 314-

SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT 75

35. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxvii, p. 591). — This monograph
on a curious little West African lemur may be regarded
as a further proof of the interest in higher mammals
which characterized this period.

3. "On the Cetacean Fossils termed 'Ziphius' by
Cuvier, with a Notice of a New Species (Belemnoziphius
compressus) from the Red Crag" (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xx,
1864, pp. 388-96. Sci. Mem., iii, i, p. i). — This deals
with an extinct whale, of which the teeth are less aberrant
than those of existing toothed Cetaceans.

4. **0n the Structure of the Belemnitidse ; with a
Description of a more complete specimen of Belemnites
than any hitherto known, and an Account of a New
Genus of Belemnitidx, * Xiphoteuthis ' " (Mem. Geol.
Survey, U.K., Monograph II, 1864. Sci. Mem., iii, 11,
p. 11). — Belemnites are familiarly known as the fossil
remains of extinct creatures related to cuttle-fishes, and
characteristic of the Mesozoic epoch. This memoir
greatly advanced our knowledge of their structure, and
must necessarily be carefully studied by all those
interested not merely in the Belemnitidae, but in the
evolution of the Molluscan class (Cephalopoda), to which
the group belongs.

Huxley had considerable faith in the annual examina-
tions held all over the country under the auspices of the
Science and Art Department, for in a letter (dated
October 6, 1 864), pressing Hooker to accept the botanical
work involved, he makes the following remark, —

'* I have always taken a very great interest in the science
examinations, looking upon them, as I do, as the most important
engine for forcing science into ordinary education" (Life, i,
p. 254).

In spite of the abuses (now somewhat ameliorated)

76 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

arising from the grant-earning side of these examina-
tions, his opinion as to their use has been largely
justified.

The event of greatest private interest that took place
in 1864 was the establishment of the celebrated .v Club
at the end of the year, as the result of a suggestion made
by Huxley to Hooker. The object was to secure the
regular meeting of a small circle of intimate friends, who
for various reasons were in some danger of losing touch
with one another. The varied branches of science were
represented in the persons of the nine members (no others
were ever admitted), and as will be seen from the
following list these have exerted no small influence upon
the progress of science : —

I. George Busk, F.R.S. ; 2. Edward Frankland, For.
Sec, R.S., K.C.B. ; 3. Thomas Archer Hirst, F.R.S. ;
4. T. H. Huxley, F.R.S. j 5. Joseph Dalton Hooker,
F.R.S., K.C.S.T.; 6. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S.,
M.P. ; 7. Herbert Spencer ; 8. William Spottiswoode,
Treasurer R.S. j 9. John Tyndall, F.R.S. Mr. Leonard
Huxley justly remarks : —

*' Small as the Club was, the members of it were destined to
play a considerable part in the history of English science. Five
of them received the Royal Medal ; three the Copley ; one
the Rumford ; six were Presidents of the British Associa-
tion ; three Associates of the Institute of France ; and from
amongst them the Royal Society chose a Secretary, a Foreign
Secretary, a Treasurer, and three successive Presidents" (Life,
i, p. 258).

The members of the Club dined together on the first
Thursday of every month, save July, August and
September, and there were 240 meetings in all (1864-93).
The first gap in the ranks was created by the death of
Spottiswoode in 1883.

HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN 77

1865.

1865 affords one or two interesting glimpses of
Huxley's educational opinions, which were markedly in
advance of the time. An essay entitled " Emancipation
— Black and White " (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 66), after dis-
cussing the question of slavery, which the American
Civil War had made a burning one, deals with the
higher education of women and related matters. The
statement is unhesitatingly made that the average negro
is not the equal of the average white man, but that this
does not justify an infraction of the moral law,

"... That no human being can arbitrarily dominate over
another without grievous damage to his own nature. . ."

Emancipated negroes will be unable to attain the
highest places, but need not remain in the lowest : —

" But whatever the position of stable equilibrium into which
the laws of social gravitation may bring the negro, all responsi-
bility for the result will henceforward lie between Nature and
him. The white man may wash his hands of it, and the
Caucasian conscience be void of reproach for evermore. And
this, if we look to the bottom of the matter, is the real justi-
fication for the abolition policy."

The emancipation of girls as regards education is then
advocated, for,

*' The mind of the average girl is less different from that of
the average boy, than the mind of one boy is from that of
another ; so that whatever argument justifies a given education
for all boys, justifies its application to girls as well. So far
from imposing artificial restrictions upon the acquirement of
knowledge by women, throw every facility in their way."

The result to be anticipated is that,

'* Women will find their place, and it will neither be that in

78 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

which they have been held, nor that to which some of them
aspire."

Since then the higher education of women has made
extraordinary advances, and there would seem to
be much truth in this prophecy made forty years
ago.

During the summer he gave his hearty support to the
International Education Society, which then commenced
its work. An International College was founded at Isle-
worth for the purpose of giving practical expression to the
views of the Society, which included the establishment
of similar and related institutions in France and Germany.
The aim was to provide a liberal education for boys,
which in its earlier stages would be the same for all
pupils, whether destined to become professional men, or
to engage in commercial pursuits.

The chief distinguishing features of the course were
to be proper provision for instruction in the elements of
physical and social science, and in three modern languages
(English, French, and German), these to be acquired by
dividing the course of a pupil between the three colleges.
The physical science was to include the topics dealt
with by Huxley in his preliminary lectures at the
Royal School of Mines, and afterwards embodied in his
work on Physiography, the equivalent of the German
" Erdkunde." Tiie Franco-Prussian war unfortunately
prevented this most interesting scheme from coming to
fruition.

It will be seen that the views of the International
Education Society have steadily made headway in this
country, and they will continue to do so. Thanks to the
efforts of Huxley and other educational pioneers, the
claims of natural science are now largely admitted, and
effect given to the admission. The recognition of

INTEREST IN ETHNOLOGY 79

"Citizenship" as a subject expresses the necessity for
imparting the main ideas of social science, and the crying
need for a living knowledge of living languages is
increasingly realized. The exchange of teachers which is
now arranged between England, France and Germany
illustrates the last point.

During the preceding winter Huxley's continued in-
terest in ethnology was evinced by the fact that his
lectures to working-men were on "The Various Races
of Mankind," and some of his views on the subject are
included in a paper in the Fortnightly Review, entitled
" On the Methods and Results of Ethnology " (Coll.
Essays, vii, 209). In this the value of philology as a
primary aid to investigation is discounted, a modified
classification of races put forward, and the unity of the
human species supported. The essay embodies the
substance of a Friday Evening Discourse delivered at the
Royal Institution (June 2, 1865) on the same subject
(Proc. Roy. Inst., iv, 1862-6, pp. 461-3. Sci. Mem.,
iii, VI, p. 121). In this he,

"... endeavoured to show in what way the application of
Mr. Darwin's views to Ethnology reconciles the doctrine of
anatomical unity with that of persistence of modification, and
overcomes difficulties of distribution by taking into account the
facts of geological change."

The two following scientific memoirs bear date
1865:-

I. "On the Structure of the Stomach in Desmodus
rufus " (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1865, pp. 386-90. Read
April II, 1865. Sci. Mem., iii, iv, p. 85). The
stomach of this blood-sucking bat is shown to be
peculiarly modified in adaptation to the nature of the
food.

8o THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

2. "On a Collection of Vertebrate Fossils from the
Panchet Rocks, Ranigunj, Bengal " (Mem. Geol. Survey,
India; Pala^ontologica Indica, i, 1865-85, pp. 3-24.
Sci. Mem. iii, v, p. 90). — This memoir deals with a
number of fragmentary remains belonging to members of
extinct groups of Amphibia and Reptilia.

To the same year belongs the " Explanatory Preface
to the Catalogue of the Palxontological Collection in the
Museum of Practical Geology," which includes a " Brief
Exposition of certain Principles of Natural History," and
the " Application of Natural History to the Elucida-
tion of Fossils, or Palseontology " (Sci. Mem., iii, vii,
p. 125).

1866.

Up to 1866 Huxley's work had received no academic
recognition in Britain, but on April 2, of that year, the
LL.D. (^honoris causa) of Edinburgh was conferred upon
him, in company with Tyndall and Carlyle, the one his
intimate friend, and the other a man whose writings had
long before played an important part in the formation of
his character (see p. 3).

The love of fair-play which Huxley consistently dis-
played under all circumstances was illustrated this year
by his becoming a member of the Jamaica Committee.
The object of this was to prosecute Governor Eyre for
murder, he having summarily executed a negro named
Gordon, who was concerned in a rising of the coloured
population of the island. The affair excited extraordinary
interest in this country, and gave rise to no little feeling.
Many men of distinction joined the committee, while
others organized a counter-committee for the defence of
Eyre.

SCIENCE TEACHING IN SCHOOLS 8i

Huxley's position in the matter is sufficiently indi-
cated in a letter to Kingsley (dated November 8, 1 866),
where, after disclaiming any admiration for Gordon,
who is described as,

"... a sufficiently poor type of small political agitator — and
very likely ... a great nuisance to the Governor and other
respectable persons,"

he adds : —

" But that is no reason why he should be condemned, by an
absurd tribunal and with a brutal mockery of the forms of
justice, for offences with which impartial judges, after a full
investigation, declare there is no evidence to show that he was
connected" (Life, i, pp. 281-2).

Huxley was President of Section D in the British
Association Meeting at Nottingham this year, and in this
capacity he took occasion to speak strongly as to the
necessity for organized science teaching in schools, and
the proper recognition of science in universities. A
paper on the teaching of science in public schools by
Dean Farrar lent strong support to the views of Huxley,
who expressed his conviction,

"... that at the present time, the important question for
England was not the duration of her coal, but the due compre-
hension of the truths of science, and the labours of her scientific
men" (Life, i, p. 277).

The interchange of opinions which took place at
Nottingham afterwards bore fruit, for it had something
to do with the organization of courses for teachers in
training in which Huxley afterwards took a prominent
part.

The publication of Elementary Lessons in Physiology in

F

82 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

1866 was also destined to play no unimportant part in
the furtherance of science teaching in this country.
Written with inimitable lucidity, it illustrates Huxley's
leaning towards the physiological side of biology, and his
admirable expository powers, and has deservedly attained
a measure of popularity rarely if ever excelled by works
of the kind.

A lay sermon " On the Advisableness of Improving
Natural Knowledge (Coll. Essays, i, p. 18), delivered at
St. Martin's Hall (on Sunday evening, November 8),
clearly sets forth the importance of the movement initiated
by the foundation of the Royal Society, in the latter part
of the seventeenth century. The aims, methods and
ideals of natural science are here luminously presented,
and its wide-reaching influence in the future predicted
with a confidence which has since been fully justified.
The following passages will be familiar to many
readers : —

" However, there are blind leaders of the blind, and not a
few of them, who take this view of natural knowledge [/.^.j the
purely utilitarian one], and can see nothing in the bountiful
mother of humanity but a sort of comfort-grinding machine.
According to them, the improvement of natural knowledge
always has been, and always must be, synonymous with no more
than the improvement of the material resources and the increase
of the gratitication of men.

" I say that natural knowledge, seeking to satisfy natural
wants, has found the ideas which can alone still spiritual cravings.
I say that natural knowledge, in desiring to ascertain the laws
of comfort, has been driven to discover those of conduct, and to
lay the foundations of a new morality.

"But in this sadness [i.e., as expressed in Homer], this
consciousness of the limitation of man, this sense of an open
secret which he cannot penetrate, lies the essence of all religion ;
and the attempt to embody it in the forms furnished by the
intellect, is the origin of the higher theologies.

" The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to

ETHNOLOGY & P/VL^ONTOLOGY 83

acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the
highest of duties ; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

" If these ideas be destined, as 1 believe they are, to be more
and more firmly established as the world grows older ; if that
spirit be fated, as I believe it is, to extend itself into all depart-
ments of human thought, and to become co-extensive with the
range of knowledge ; if, as our race approaches its maturity,
it discovers, as 1 believe it will, that there is but one kind of
knowledge and but one method of acquiring it ; then we, who
are still children, may justly feel it our highest duty to recognise
the advisableness of improving natural knowledge, and so to aid
ourselves and our successors in our course towards the noble
goal which lies before mankind."

Continued interest in ethnology is manifested by the
publication of a paper on " Prehistoric Remains in Caith-
ness " in the Natural History Review for February, and
in the sympathy expressed with a scheme brought before
the Asiatic Society by Dr. Fayrer for the promotion of
anthropological research in South Asia.

The following palaeontological memoirs also belong
to 1866: —

1. " British Fossils. Illustrations of the Structure of
the Crossopterygian Ganoids" (Mem. Geol. Survey,
U.K., Decade XII, 1866. Sci. Mem., Supply. Vol. ri,
p. 20). — This deals with the genera Glytopomus, Coelac-
anthus, Macropoma and Holophagus, and is a continua-
tion of work to which allusion has already been made
(see p. 62).

2. "On a Collection of Fossil Vertebrata, from the
Jarrow Colliery, County of Kilkenny, Ireland " (Trans.
Roy. Irish Acad., xxiv, 1 871, pp. 351-69. Read January
6, 1866. Sci. Mem., iii, viii, p. 180). — The extinct
vertebrates in question are Amphibia (Labyrintho-
donts).

3. " On Some Remains of large Dinosaurian Reptiles
from the Stormberg Mountains, South Africa" (Q. J.

84 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Gcol. Soc, xxiii, 1867, pp. 1-6. Read November 7,
1866. Sci. Mem., iii, ix, p. 198).

4. " On a New Specimen of Telerpeton Elginense "
(op. cit., xxiii, 1867, pp. 77-84. Read December 19,
1866. Sci. Mem., iii, x, p. 205). — This describes a very
ancient extinct reptile.

CHAPTER X

BIRDS AND REPTILES PROTOPLASM AGNOSTICISM

[1867-69].

Among Huxley's Continental friends Haeckel had long
been reckoned, and during 1867, when the family were
staying at Swanage, a visit paid by Dr. Anton Dohrn
marked the beginning of another warm intimacy of the
kind. In a letter to the former (dated July 16, 1867),
congratulating him on his betrothal, and one to the latter
written (September 22) after the visit to Swanage, we get
pleasing glimpses of the home life in which Huxley par-
ticularly delighted, and which alone rendered his immense
output of work possible. At this time his children were
seven in number, the eldest being ten years old. " Go
and see the Huxley family at Swanage," was suggested
by Dohrn as a completely satisfactory definition of happi-
ness (Life, i, p. 291).

The last course of lectures as Fullerian Professor of
Physiology was delivered at the Royal Institution this
year, Huxley finding it necessary to give up this part of
his woi^k as being in various ways too exacting, and
trenching too much upon the time available for original
research. The three following memoirs bear date
1867:—

I. " On Two Widely Contrasted Forms of the Human
Cranium" (J. Anat. and Physiol., i, 1867, pp. 60-77.
Sci. Mem., iii, xi, p. 214). — A detailed comparison is
made in this paper between a broad-headed (brachy-

85

86 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

cephalic) Tartar skull, and a long-headed (dolichocephalic)
one of Australian type.

2. " On Acanthopholis horridus, a New Reptile from
the Chalk-marl " (Gcol. Mag., iv, 1867, pp. 65-7. Sci.
Mem., Hi, xii, p. 23 ij. — This is a short account of
some fragmentary remains belonging to a Dinosaur.

3. *' On the Classification of Birds ; and on the Tax-
onomic Value of the Modifications of Certain of the
Cranial Bones observable in that Class " (Proc. Zool. Soc,
1867, pp. 415-72. Read April 11, 1867. Sci. Mem.,
iii, XIII, p. 239). — This epoch-making paper, the result
of work commenced some years previously {cf. p. 63),
is an attempt to classify a notoriously difficult group upon
new principles, and the supposed actual relationships
between the subdivisions thus constituted are indicated.

1868.

Three addresses given during 1868 are remarkable in
various ways. One of them, " A Liberal Education ; and
where to find it " (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 76), delivered at
the South London Working-Men's College, sets forth
the crying need for an all-round education involving real
training of the mind, makes a scathing indictment against
all stages of education in Britain as then carried out, and
sketches the result to be expected from the system of
education advocated, in the following notable passages : —

" That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who has
been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of
his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that as a
mechanism it is capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic
engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth, work-
ing order ; ready, like a steam engine, to be turned to any kind
of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of
the mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great

LITERARY STYLE 87

and fundamental truths of nature and of the laws of her opera-
tions ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but
whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will,
the servant of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all
beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to
respect others as himself.

"Such an one and no other, I conceive, has had a liberr.l
education, for he is as completely as a man can be, in harmony
with nature. He will make the best of her, and she of him.
They will get on together rarely ; she as his ever beneficent
mother ; he as her mouth-piece, her conscious self, her minister
and interpreter."

The second address "On a Piece of Chalk" (Coll.
Essays, viii, p. i), was delivered to the working-men of
Norwich during the meeting of the British Association.
Here Mr. Leonard Huxley (Life, i, p. 297) may with
advantage be quoted : —

" This lecture ' On a Piece of Chalk,' together with two
others delivered this year, seem to me to mark the maturing
of his style into that mastery of clear expression for which he
deliberately laboured, the saying exactly what he meant, neither
too much nor too little, without confusion and without obscurity.
Have something to say, and say it, was the Duke of Wellington's
theory of style ; Huxley's was to say that which has to be said
in such language that you can stand cross-examination on each
word. Be clear, though you may get convicted of error. If you
are clearly wrong, you will run up against a fact sometime and
get set right. If you shuffle with your subject, and study chiefly
to use language which will give a loophole of escape either
way, there is no hope for you.

" This was the secret of his lucidity. In no one could
Buffon's aphorism on style find a better illustration, Le style
c'esi Vhomme meme. In him science and literature, too often
divorced, were closely united ; showing that truthfulness need
not be bald, and that real power lies more in exact accuracy than
in luxuriance of diction. Years after, no less an authority than
Spedding, in a letter upon the influence of Bacon on his own
style in the matter of exactitude, the pruning of fine epithets

88 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

and sweeping statements, the reduction of numberless superlatives
to positives, asserted that, if as a young man he had fallen in with
Huxley's writings before Bacon's, they would have produced
the same effect upon him."

The address upon Chalk is noteworthy in a variety of
ways. For one thing it marks the increasing interest
which men of science were beginning to take in deep-sea
life, and which culminated in the equipment and despatch
of the Challenger expedition towards the end of 1872.

The third address, given during 1868, " On the Physical
Basis of Life" (Coll. Essays, i, p. 130), was delivered in
Edinburgh as a lay sermon (Sunday evening, November 8),
and attracted an unusual amount of attention, friendly
and otherwise.

In a note (dated 1892) to the reprint of this essay,
Huxley remarks : —

" I cannot say I have ever had to complain of lack of hostile
criticism ; but the preceding essay has come in for more than its
fair share of that commodity."

Yet its main object was simply to show that all the
manifestations of life as we know it, whether in plants or
animals, are associated with a physical substratum of the
same character, z.^., protoplasm ; teaching which is now
embodied in every elementary course of biology. But
after carrying this thesis to its logical conclusion, Huxley
expressly says : —

"... I, individually, am no materialist, but, on the contrary,
believe materialism to involve grave philosophical error. This
union of materialistic terminology with the repudiation of material-
istic philosophy I share with some of the most thoughtful men
with whom I am acquainted."

The address also includes a criticism of the position
taken up by Archbishop Thomson, who, in his lecture

OLDEST EXTINCT BIRD 89

" On the Limits of Philosophical Inquiry," identified
Comtism with the " New Philosophy " (i.e.^ the spirit of
modern science), and further credited Comte with doc-
trines that should have been attributed to David Hume.
Huxley's own philosophic views owed much to the in-
fluence of the latter, as will subsequently become apparent.
The following scientific memoirs belong to 1868 : —

1. " Remarks upon Archaeopteryx lithographica "
(Proc. Roy. Soc, xvi, pp. 243-8. Read January 30, 1868.
Sci. Mem., iii, xviii, p. 340). — This deals with the
oldest extinct bird, a form presenting several well-marked
reptilian features, of which the most striking then known
was the possession of a long jointed tail, bearing, how-
ever, pairs of quill feathers. The following remark is
of prophetic interest : —

" If when the head of Archseopteryx is discovered, its jaws
contain teeth, it will not the more, to my mind, cease to be a
bird, than turtles cease to be reptiles, because they have beaks."

It is now a familiar fact that when a complete speci-
men of Archteopteryx was subsequently found, it proved
to be a tooth-bearing form.

2. " On Saurosternon Bainii and Pristerodon M'Kayi,
two New Lacertilian Reptiles [i.e., lizards] from South
Africa" (Geol. Mag., v, 1868, pp. 201-5. Sci. Mem.,
iii, XIV, p. 298).

3. "On the Animals which are Most Nearly Inter-
mediate between Birds and Reptiles" (op. cit., v, 1868,
pp. 357-<^5' Sci. Mem., iii, xv, p. 303). — This deals
with the extinct group of Dinosaurs, some of which
resemble birds in certain anatomical characters. It em-
bodies the substance of an address delivered at the Royal
Institution on February 7, and is in part the outcome of
the work on Archaeopteryx (^vide supra).

90 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

4. " On the Formation of the Cranium among the
Patagonians and the Fuegians, with Some Remarks upon
American Crania in General" (J. Anat. and Physiol., ii,
1868, pp. 253-71. Sci. Mem., iii, xvi, p. 314).

5. " On Some Organisms Living at Great Depths in
the North Atlantic Ocean" (Q. J. Micros. Sci., New
Series, viii, 1868, pp. 203-12. Sci. Mem., iii, xvii,
p. 330). — The chief scientific interest of this paper is the
description of certain indefinite gelatinous masses found
in preserved Atlantic dredgings under the name of
" Bathybius Haeckelii," supposed to be a primitive
organism (" Ur-schleim "). This view, afterwards fully
recanted (see p. 154), was founded on one of Huxley's
very few observational errors.

6. "On the Classification and Distribution of the
Alectoromorphae [?>., game birds] and Heteromorphae "
(Proc. Zool. Soc, 1868, pp. 294-319. Read May 14,
1868. Sci. Mem., iii, xix, p. 346).— This important
extension of Huxley's work on birds assigns the aberrant
South American form Opisthocomus to a separate group
(Heteromorphs), most nearly related to game birds and
pigeons. It also includes his views on the division of
the land into distributional regions, and gives the name
" Wallace's Line" to the boundary between the Australian
and Oriental realms.

1869.

The many-sided activities of 1869 included a further
development of Huxley's views on the place of science
in education. On April 7, for example, he spoke
at the Liverpool Philomathic Society on "Scientific
Education : Notes of an After-dinner Speech " (Coll.
Essays, iii, p. iii). The lecture alludes to the increas-

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION 91

ing recognition of the claims of science, and dwells on its
importance to various sections of the community, both
from the practical standpoint, and as a means of training
the mind. The widespread ignorance of physical science
on the part of the Protestant clergy is deplored, and they
are spoken of as —

" . . . at present divisible into three sections : an immense
body who are ignorant and speak out ; a small proportion who
know and are silent ; and a minute minority who know and
speak according to their knowledge."

A tribute is paid to the thorough training given by the
Roman Catholic Church to its priests : —

" Our great antagonist — I speak as a man of science — the
Roman Catholic Church, the one great spiritual organization
which is able to resist, and must, as a matter of life and death,
resist, the progress of science and modern civilization, manages
her affairs much better."

Then follows a sketch of Huxley's views as to the
nature of an ideal school course in physical science,
beginning v/ith observation of facts and ending with
practical training in scientific method.

These views were no new thing, and he had for
many years giVen them expression in preliminary lectures
to the Jermyn Street course (see p. 37), but now, for the
first time, the elements of physiography were brought
before an audience primarily of school-boys at the London
Institution during April, May, and June. The lectures
were repeated in November, at South Kensington
Museum, as part of a course for women. They after-
wards appeared, in book form, under the title Physio-
graphy (1877), and exerted a widespread influence upon
elementary science teaching.

That increasing importance was being attached to

92 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

science at this time is indicated by the foundation of the
Metaphysical Society in 1869, with the object of bring-
ing together leading thinkers of diverse opinions as re-
gards the " New Philosophy " {if. p. 89). The credit of
the idea is due to James Knowlcs, and the Society, which
was not long-lived, justified its existence by enabling a
number of misconceptions to be cleared up, with no
small gain in the matter of mutual respect. The com-
position of the Society is described as follows by Mr.
Leonard Huxley (Life, i, p. 314) : —

" Thus the Society came to be composed of men of the most
opposite ways of thinking and of very various occupations in
life. The largest group was that of churchmen : — ecclesiastical
dignitaries such as Thomson, the Archbishop of York, Ellicott,
Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, and Dean Alford ; staunch
laymen such as Mr. Gladstone, Lord Selborne, and the Duke
of Argyll ; while the liberal school was represented by Dean
Stanley, F, D. Maurice, and Mark Pattison. Three distin-
guished converts from the English Church championed Roman
Catholic doctrine — Cardinal Manning, Father Dalgairns, and
W. G. Ward, while Unitarianism claimed Dr. James Martineau.
At the opposite pole, in antagonism to Christian theology and
theism generally, stood Professor W, K. Clifford, whose youth-
ful brilliancy was destined to be cut short by an untimely death.
Positivism was represented by Mr. Frederic Harrison; and
Agnosticism by such men of science or letters as Huxley and
Tyndall, Mr. John Morley, and Mr. Leslie Stephen.

" Something was gained, too, by the variety of callings
followed by the different members. While there were pro-
fessional students of philosophy, like Professor Henrv Sidgwick
or Sir Alexander Grant, the Principal of Edinburgh University,
in some the technical knowledge of philosophy was overlaid by
studies in history or letters ; in others, by the practical experience
of the law or politics ; in others, again, medicine or biology
supplied a powerful psychological instrument. This fact tended
to keep the discussions in touch with reality on many sides.

"There was Tennyson, for instance, the only poet who
thoroughly understood the movement of modern science, a stately
but silent member; Mr. Ruskin, J. A. Froude, Shad worth

THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY 93

Hodgson, R. H. Hutton of the Spectator, James Hinton, and
the well-known essayist, W. R. Greg ; Sir James Fitzjames
Stephen, Sir F, Pollock, Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke),
Sir M. E. Grant DufF, and Lord Arthur Russell ; Sir John
Lubbock, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Sir William Gull, and Sir
Andrew Clark."

It would seem that the debates of the Society were
singularly free from remarks of a personal character, and
indeed it was expressly understood that this should be
so. The only passage-at-arms of the kind appears to
have been between W. G. Ward and Huxley, at a meet-
ing where someone had suggested that such methods
of expression ought to be sedulously avoided. Upon
which Ward remarked : —

*' While acquiescing in this condition as a general rule, I
think it cannot be expected that Christian thinkers shall give no
sign of the horror with which they would view the spread of
such extreme opinions as those advocated by Mr. Huxley."

Which immediately elicited the retort : —

" As Dr. Ward has spoken, I must in fairness say, that it will
be very difficult for me to conceal my feeling as to the intel-
lectual degradation which would come ot the general acceptance
of such views as Dr. Ward holds " (Life of Dr. W. G. Ward,
p. 309).

This practical illustration of what might be expected
if personalities were not to be avoided, settled once for
all the way in which discussions would have to be con-
ducted if the object of the Society was not to be frus-
trated.

The word '' agnostic " was coined by Huxley after he
entered the Metaphysical Society, in order to express the
non-committal attitude he felt bound to adopt towards
religious problems. As an unusually keen debater, with

94 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

an unrivalled critical faculty, he uncompromisingly
attacked the dogmatic statements of some of his fellow-
members, and himself contributed the following three
papers :— i. " The Views of Hume, Kant, and Whately
on the logical basis of the doctrine of the Immortality of
the Soul" (November 17, 1869); 2. "Has a Frog a
Soul ? and if so, of what Nature is that Soul ? "
(November 8, 1870); 3. " Evidence of the Miracle of
the Resurrection" (January 11, 1876).

Huxley was President of the Geological and Ethno-
logical Societies in 1869, and at the Exeter Meeting of
the British Association was elected as President for the
following year, Liverpool being adopted as the place to
be visited. The still increasing quantity of work in
which he was immersed obliged him to resign the
Hunterian Professorship at the Royal College of
Surgeons. The following list of memoirs for the year
will give some idea of his scientific activity at this
time.

I. "The Anniversary Address of the President" (Q.
J. Geol. Soc, XXV. 1869, pp. xxviii,-liii. Delivered
February 19, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xxiii, p. 397. Coll.
Essays, as " Geological Reform," viii, p. 305). — This
paid the usual tributes to the memories of deceased
Fellows, including in this case Bouchers de Perthes and
M. A. Morlot, eminent workers on prehistoric man in
France and Switzerland, Principal Forbes and Sir David
Brewster. The address itself was on the subject of
" Geological Reform," and had reference to the time-
limits which Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin),
from the physical standpoint, had imposed upon geology
in his work "On Geological Time" (Trans. Geol. Soc,
Glasgow, iii). While admitting the necessity for accept-
ing time-limits of the kind, Huxley put forward a caveat

GEOLOGICAL REFORM 95

against accepting mathematical deductions unless the
premises were absolutely matters of fact : —

" Mathematics may be compared to a mill of exquisite work-
manship, which grinds you stuff of any degree of fineness ; but,
nevertheless, what you get out depends upon what you put in ;
and as the grandest mill in the world will not extract wheat-
flour from peas-cods, so pages of formulae will not get a definite
result out of loose data."

The chief interest of the address lies in the recognition
of the fact that the progress of scientific thought
necessitated some modification of the Uniformitarian
attitude, and the adoption of " Evolutionism " instead.

2. "On Hyperodapedon" (op. cit., xxv, 1869, pp.
138-52. Read January 13, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xx,
p. 374). — This extinct reptile is shown to resemble the
existing Hatteria of New Zealand, the only living repre-
sentative of its order.

3. "On a new Labyrinthodont from Bradford" (op.
cit., xxv, 1869, pp. 309-11. Read May 26, 1869.
Sci. Mem., iii, xxi, p. 391). — This describes Pholi-
derpeton, an extinct Amphibian.

4. " On the Upper Jaw of Megalosaurus " (op. cit., xxv,

1869, pp. 311-14. Read May 26, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii,
xxii, p. 394). — 1 he huge extinct reptile in question is a
carnivorous member of the extinct group of Dinosauria.

5. " On Hypsilophodon Foxii, a New Dinosaurian
from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight " (op. cit., xxvi,

1870, pp. 3-12. Read November 10, 1869. Sci. Mem.,
iii, xxvii, p. 454).

6. " Further Evidence of the Affinity between the
Dinosaurian Reptiles and Birds" (op. cit., xxvi, 1870,
pp. 12-31. Read November 10, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii,
xxviii, p. 465). — In this memoir views previously ad-
vanced {cf, p. 89) are elaborated.

96 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

7. " On the Classification of Dinosauria, with Ob-
servations on the Dinosauria of the Trias" (op. cit.,
xxvi, 1870, pp. 32-50. Read November 24, 1869.
Sci. Mem. iii, xxix, p. 487). One interesting point in
this paper is the endeavour to show that the area of dis-
tribution '' Arctog£Ba," including the northern parts of
the land of both hemispheres, has existed from a remote
geological epoch.

8. " On the Ethnology and Archseology of India.
Opening Address of the President" (J. Ethnol. Soc,
New Ser,, i, 1869, pp. 89-93. Delivered March 9,
1869. Sci. Mem,, iii, xxiv, p. 427). — This was the
outcome of work undertaken in connection with Fayrer's
scheme, to which allusion has already been made (see

p. «3).

9. " On the Ethnology and Archaeology of North

America" (op. cit., i, 1869, pp. 218-21. Delivered
April 13, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xxv, p. 432).

10. " On the Representatives of the Malleus and Incus
of the Mammalia in other Vertebrata" (Proc. Zool. Soc,
1869, pp. 391-407. Read May 27, 1869. Sci. Mem.,
iii, xxvi, p. 436). — This is an important contribution
to the literature regarding two of the minute bones which
convey sound-vibrations across the drum of the ear. The
views of Professor Peters are criticized, and others
advanced.

During 1869, Huxley also wrote an interesting critique,
" The Genealogy of Animals" (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 107)
on the important work. The Natural History of Creation
("Natiirliche Schopfungs-Geschichte," Berlin, 1868), put
out by his friend. Professor Haeckel of Jena, of whom
he says : —

" Considering that Germany now takes the lead of the world
in scientific investigations, and particularly in biology, Mr. Darwin

PROFESSOR HAECKEL 97

must be well pleased at the rapid spread of his views among
some of the ablest and most laborious of German naturalists.
Among these, Professor Haeckel, of Jena, is the Coryphaeus."

The Introduction to the Classification of Animals^ published
in 1869, was not a new work but a partial reprint of
the lectures on Elementary Comparative Anatomy, issued in
1864.

CHAPTER XI

OFFICIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE WORK [1870-71].

The year 1870 may be taken as the beginning of a new
stage in Huxley's life, involving an increase in official and
administrative duties, with consequent diminution in the
amount of original work. The last point is sufficiently
illustrated by the fact that three out of the four large
volumes in which his Scientific Memoirs have been issued
in a collected form are taken up with the results of re-
searches carried out before 1873.

Much time was in future to be occupied by the duties
involved in serving on various Commissions. Before
1870 he had already been a member of four of these, i.e. :

1. Royal Commission on the Operation of Acts relating
to Trawling for Herrings on the Coast of Scotland ( 1 862).

2. Royal Commission to inquire into the Sea Fisheries of
the United Kingdom (1864-5). 3. Commission on the
Royal College of Science for Ireland (1866). 4. Com-
mission on Science and Art Instruction in Ireland (1868).

The Commissions with which he was concerned from
1870 onwards were as follows^: — 5. Royal Commission
upon the Administration and Operation of the Contagious
Diseases Acts (1870-1). 6. Royal Commission on
Scientific Instruction and the Advancement of Science
(1870-5). 7. Royal Commission on the Practice of sub-
jecting Live Animals to Experiments for Scientific Pur-
poses (1876). 8. Royal Commission to inquire into
the Universities of Scotland (1876-8). 9. Royal Com-
mission on the Medical Acts (188 1-2). 10. Royal

98

LONDON SCHOOL BOARD 99

Commission on Trawl, Net and Beam Trawl Fishing
(1884).

Administrative work in connection with various learned
societies consumed an increasing amount of time, especially
the heavy duties associated with the Secretaryship of the
Royal Society, which he held from 1872-81, afterwards
becoming President (1883-5)-

Before 1870 Huxley had not been content merely with
demonstrating, by the example of his own courses, the
methods which ought to be employed in order to make
the specialist teaching of science really efficient, but he
had also taken every opportunity of expressing his views
as to the place of science in a school curriculum, and as
to the unsatisfactory nature of school education in Britain
{cf. p. 91). Largely as the result of the part he
played in the intellectual renascence to which the theory
of evolution gave so powerful an impetus, profound dis-
content had gradually arisen in this country with the dis-
organized state of elementary education, which found
practical expression in the passing of W. E. Forster's
Education Act in 1870.

Huxley fortunately conceived it to be his duty to offer
himself as a candidate for the first London School Board,
and without taking any steps beyond some addresses given
at public meetings, was returned for the Marylebone
division on November 29, being second on the poll.
His reasons for coming forward are thus summarized by
Mr. Leonard Huxley (Life, i, p. 337) : —

" This [/.f., the London School Board] was the practical out-
come of the rising interest in education all over the country ; on
its working, he felt, depended momentous issues — the fostering of
the moral and physical well-being of the nation; the quickening
of its intelligence and the maintenance of its commercial
supremacy. Withal, he desired to temper • book-learning ' with

loo THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

something of the direct knowledge of nature: on the one hand,
as an admirable instrument of education, if properly applied; on
the other, as preparing the way for an attitude of mind which
could appreciate the reasons for the immense changes already
beginning to operate in human thought."

In an article in the Cotitemporary Revienv (1870) on
" The School Boards : what they can do, and what they
may do" (Coll. Essays, ill, p. 374), we find a sketch of
what Huxley considered elementary education should in-
clude, arranged under four heads : — " i. Physical training
and drill, as part of the regular business of the school.
2. Next in order to physical training I put the instruc-
tion of children, and especially of girls, in the elements
of household work and of domestic economy •, in the first
place for their own sakes, and in the second for that of
their future employers." 3. Ethical and religious training.
4. Intellectual training, including not only reading, writ-
ing and arithmetic, but also the elements of physical
science, with drawing, modelling and singing.

The considerations advanced under the third heading
are in these days of particular interest. One provision of
the Act ran as follows : —

" No religious catechism or religious formulary which is
distinctive of any particular denomination shall be taught in
the school."

Mr. Forster afterwards defined the kind of religious in-
struction permitted by the Act : —

" I have the fullest confidence that in the reading and explaining
of the Bible, what the children will be taught will be the great
truths of Christian life and conduct, which all of us desire they
should know, and that no effort will be made to cram into
their poor little minds theological dogmas which their tender
age prevents them from understanding."

In the article now under consideration Huxley very

RELIGION IN SCHOOLS loi

clearly defines his own position in regard to the religious
question, and since that position has been much misunder-
stood and often misrepresented, it will be well to make it
clear. He deplores the current confusion between religion
and theology, beginning with the statement that, from
the intellectual side, the laws of conduct are a part of
moral science, while, " all that has any unchangeable
reality in religion" is beyond science, and constituted by

"... the engagement of the affections in favour of that
particular kind of conduct which we call good . . . together
with the awe and reverence, which have no kinship with base
fear, but arise whenever one tries to pierce below the surface of
things, whether they be material or spiritual. . . ."

Elsewhere he gives the brief definition : —

"Teach a child what is wise, that is fnoral'ity. Teach him
what is wise and beautiful, that is religion'" (Life, i, p. 343,
Note i).

This naturally calls to mind one of the Platonic ideals, as
expressed in the following passage, which follows Plato's
criticism of poets : —

" This being the case, ought we to confine ourselves to superin-
tending our poets, and compelling them to impress on their
productions the likeness of a good moral character, on pain of
not composing among us ; or ought we to extend our superin-
tendence to the professors of every other craft as well . . . ?
Ought we not, on the contrary, to seek out artists of another
stamp, who, by the power of genius can trace out the nature of
the fair and the graceful, that our young men, dwelling as it
were in a healthful region, may drink in good from every quarter,
whence any emanation from noble works may strike upon their
eye or their ear, like a gale wafting health from salubrious lands,
and win them imperceptibly from their earliest childhood into
resemblance, love, and harmony with the true beauty of reason \ "
(The Republic of Plato, translation of Davies and Vaughan,
new edition, 1874, pp. 96-7).

I02 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Huxley was undoubtedly a supporter of secular educa-
tion, defined as " education without theology," but there
were then as now secularists and secularists, and so far
from being the leader of those included in the first London
School Board, he was entirely opposed to their views,
quite as much as to those of the so-called " religious
party " : —

" For, leaving aside the more far-seeing minority on each side,
what the * religious ' party is crying for is mere theology, under
the name of religion ; while the ' secularists ' have unwisely
and wrongfully admitted the assumption of their opponents, and
demand the abolition of all ' religious ' teaching, when they only
want to be free of theology — burning your ship to get rid of the
cockroaches ! "

And further : —

"... If I were compelled to choose for one of my own
children, between a school in which real religious instruction is
given, and one without it, I should prefer the former, even
though the child might have to take a good deal of theology
with it."

Huxley's eloquent plea for the use of the Bible in
schools, as the only practical measure by which *' the
religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct,"
can be kept up in this country, has often been quoted, but
will bear quoting again : —

" Take the Bible as a whole ; make the severest deductions
which fair criticism can dictate for shortcomings and positive
errors ; eliminate, as a sensible lay-teacher would do, if left to
himself, ail that it is not desirable for children to occupy them-
selves with ; and there still remains in this old literature a
vast residuum of moral beauty and grandeur. And then con-
sider the great historical fact that, for three centuries, this book
has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest
in English history ; that it has become the national epic of Britain,
and is as familiar to noble and simple, from John o' Groats

USE OF THE BIBLE 103

House to Land's End, as Dante and Tasso once were to the
Italians ; that it is written in the noblest and purest English, and
abounds in exquisite beauties of mere literary form ; and finally,
that it forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be
ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilizations,
and of a great past, stretching back to the furthest limits of the
oldest nations in the world. By the study of what other book
could children be so much humanized and made to feel that each
figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a
momentary space in the interval between two eternities ; and
earns the blessings or the curses of all time, according to its effort
to do good and hate evil, even as they also are earning their pay-
ment for their work ? "

To this, however, it is only fair to add the statement of
Mr. Leonard Huxley that his father,

"... would not have used the Bible as the agency for
introducing the religious and ethical idea into education if he
had been dealing with a fresh and untouched population " (Life,
i. P-343)-

Of course not, for adaptation to existing environments is
in the essence of all progress.

As a member of the London School Board, Huxley
did his best to carry into effect the views just explained,
supporting, for example, a resolution proposed by Mr.
W. H. Smith, M.P., and carried by a large majority, to
the effect : —

" That, in the schools provided by the Board, the Bible shall
be read, and there shall be given therefrom such explanations
and such instruction in the principles of religion and morality
as are suited to the capacities of children."

Unfortunately ill health necessitated resignation of his
seat on the Board in the early part of 1872, though even
during the brief space of fourteen months for which he
served he had succeeded in realizing some part of his

I04 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

ideals as to elementary education. As was to be expected,
Huxley made a deep impression upon his fellow-members,
many of" whom had felt no small dismay at his election.
Such fears were soon dispelled by his straightforward
honesty, consideration for the opinions of others, and
strong common sense. And there can be no doubt that
his resignation was accepted with very real regret. Our
debt to him in respect of elementary education, and the
personal impression he made on the School Board, will be
fully realized by reading the contributions furnished by
Dr. J. H. Gladstone to Mr, Leonard Huxley for bio-
graphical purposes (Life, i, pp. 349-50). The essence
of the matter is contained in the following brief extracts
from this contribution : —

"On February 7 [1872"], a letter of resignation was received
from him. . . . The Rev. Dr. Rigg, Canon Miller,
Mr. Charles Read, and Lord Lawrence [the Chairman]
expressed their deep regret. In the words of Dr. Rigg,
'they were losing one of the most valuable members of the
Board, not only because of his intellect and trained acute-
ness, but because of his knowledge of every subject connected
with culture and education, and because of his great fairness
and impartiality with regard to all subjects that came under his
observation.' Though Huxley quitted the Board after only
fourteen months' service, the memory of his words and acts
combined to influence it long afterwards. ... It was our
duty to put into practice the scheme of instruction which
Huxley was mainly instrum.ental in settling, . . . Kindergarten
methods have been promoted. Drawing, on which Huxley laid
more stress than his colleagues generally did, has been enor-
mouslyextended and greatly revoludonized in its methods. Object
lessons and elementary science have been introduced everywhere,
while shorthand, the use of tools for boys, and cookery and
domestic economy for girls, are becoming essentials in our schools.
Evening continuation schools have lately been widely extended.
Thus the impulse given by Huxley in the first months of the
Board's existence has been carried forward by others, and is now
affecting the minds of the half million of boys and girls in the

INFLUENCE ON BOARD SCHOOLS 105

Board Schools of London, and indirectly tiie still greater number
in other schools throughout the land."

Huxley's influence endures to-day not merely in the
general character of elementary instruction, but also in
the easily available means by which pupils of ability are
enabled to take advantage of higher education. Indeed,
the "educational ladder" is perhaps set at too easy an
angle.

Baseless assertions were made at the time that Huxley
was led by personal ambition to become a member of the
School Board, and that he contemplated a political career.
As a matter of fact the opportunity was more than once
afforded him of offering himself as a candidate to a
parliamentary constituency, and in the opinion of those
most competent to judge, e.g., Sir Mountstuart Grant
Duff (Life, i, pp. 354-5), he would have proved a
brilliant success in the House of Commons, provided the
strain had not proved too much for his physical en-
durance.

For the sake of continuity Huxley's School Board work
has been taken as a whole, and it will now be necessary
to go back to 1870 for the purpose of considering other
events and other kinds of activity. The publication
of Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews during this year,
largely extended his influence as an educationist, and met
with a large and increasing popularity. A volume of
selections from it was published during the following
year.

An address "On Medical Education" (Coll. Essays,
iii, p. 303), given during 1870 to the medical students
of University College, London, contains some very in-
teresting suggestions, some of which might still be carried
out with advantage, despite the many advances which
have been made during the last thirty-five years. The

io6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

importance to medical students of some school training in
chemistry, physics and botany is emphasized, some criticism
is directed against the current methods of teaching and
acquiring a knowledge of physiology, and the abolition
of comparative anatomy and materia medica from the
medical curriculum advocated. Besides this it is strongly
urged that, in the interest of the London medical schools,
the teaching of the theoretical subjects in the course of
study ought to be centralized in two or three insti-
tutions.

One of Huxley's most famous addresses, that " On
Descartes' ' Discourse touching the Method of using
one's Reason rightly and of seeking Scientific Truth,' " was
delivered on March 24, to the Cambridge Y.M.C.A.
(Coll. Essays, i, p. 166). The address is not merely
interesting as a lucid exposition of Cartesian philosophy,
but also because it demonstrates that this philosophy
was one of the important influences that had helped
to bring about Huxley's characteristic intellectual
attitude : —

" This golden rule is — give unqualified assent to no proposi-
tions but those the truth of which is so clear and distinct that
they cannot be doubted. The enunciation of this great first
commandment of science consecrated Doubt. It removed
Doubt from the seat of penance among the grievous sins to
which it had long been condemned, and enthroned it in that
high place among the primary duties, which is assigned to it by
the scientific conscience of these latter days. . , . When I say
that Descartes consecrated doubt, you must remember that it
was that sort of doubt which Goethe has called, ' the active
scepticism, whose whole aim is to conquer itself;' and not
that other sort, which is born of flippancy and ignorance, and
whose aim is only to perpetuate itself, as an excuse for idleness
and indifference."

Another very well-known lecture, " On the Formation

PALEONTOLOGY & EVOLUTION 107

of Coal" (Coll. Essays, viii, p. 137), was delivered at
the Philosophical Institute, Bradford, and much resembles
in character the one " On a Piece of Chalk," given two
years previously (cf. p. 87).

The following are the scientific memoirs and more
technical addresses of 1870 ; —

I. "Anniversary Address of the President" (Q. J.
Geol. Soc, xxvi, 1870, pp. xxix-lxiv. Delivered
February 18, 1870. Sci. Mem., iii, xxx, p. 510. Re-
printed under the title of " Paleontology and the Doctrine
of Evolution," in Coll. Essays, viii, p. 340). — The more
important of the deceased Fellows to whom tributes were
paid are the Vicomte d'Archiac, J. Beete Jukes, H. C. E.
von Meyer and J. W. Salter. The address may be
described as bringing a previous one up to date. In
memoirs already dealt with (if. pp. 89, 95) Huxley had
pointed to certain extinct reptiles (Ornithoscelida, a group
of Dinosauria) as being the animals most nearly inter-
mediate between reptiles and birds. Here he adds : —

" . . . it is very doubtful whether any of the genera of Orni-
thoscelida with which we are at present acquainted, are the
actual linear types by which the transition from the lizard to
the bird was effected. These, very probably, are still hidden
from us in the older formations."

This view has been amply endorsed by subsequent
research. We have also the famous account of the
pedigree of the horse, so far as then known. Existing
equine quadrupeds, with their one-toed extremities (pos-
sessing, however, in the " splint-bones," vestiges or
rudiments of two others), and complex grinding teeth,
are traced back to earlier three-toed forms (Hipparion,
Anchitherium, Plagiolophus), in which the teeth in
question are simpler in character. And in connection

io8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

with this comes the famous prophecy now completely
tullilled:-

"If the expectation raised by the splints of the horses that,
in some ancestor of the horses, these splints would be found to
be complete digits, has been verified, we are furnished with
very strong reasons for looking for a no less complete verifica-
tion of the expectation that the three-toed Plagiolophus-like
* avus' of the horse must have had a live-toed ' atavus ' at some
earlier period."

2. " On the Milk Dentition of Palaeotherium magnum "
[an extinct mammal related to the elephants] (Geol. Mag.,
vii, 1870, pp. 153-5. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxv, p. 595)-

3. " Triassic Dinosauria" (Nature, i, 1870, pp. 23-4.
Sci. Mem., iii, xxxvi, p. 599).

4. " On the Ethnology of Britain " (J. Ethnol. Soc,
New Series, ii, 1870, pp. 382-4. Read May 10, 1870.
Sci. Mem., iii, xxxr, p. 551). Afterwards published in
the Contemporary Rev'ieiu under the title of " Some Fixed
Points in British Ethnology " (Coll. Essays, vii, p. 253).

5. "Anniversary Address of the President" (op. cit.,
pp. xvi-xxiv. Delivered May 24, 1870. Sci. Mem.,
iii, xxxii, p. 554). — We gather from this that Huxley
was trying to bring about an amalgamation between the
Ethnological and Anthropological Societies, the aims of
which were practically the same.

His views as to the racial nature of the inhabitants
of the west of England appear to have given offence to
an individual who attacked him in the Pall Mall Gazette^
under the 7wm de plume of " A Devonshire Man," and
unwisely launched into personalities, which elicited the
following withering retort : —

" ' A Devonshire man ' is good enough to say of me that
' cutting up monkeys is his forte, and cutting up men is his

BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 109

foible.' With your permission, I propose to cut up ' A Devon-
shire Man ' ; but I leave it to the public to judge whether,
when so employed, my occupation is to be referred to the former
or to the latter category " (Life, i. pp. 325-6).

6. " On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief
Modification of Mankind" (op. cit., pp. 404-12. Read
June 7, 1870. Sci. Mem, iii, xxxiii, p. 564).

7. "Presidential Address to the British Association at
Liverpool" (Rep. Brit. Assoc. (1870), 1871, pp. Ixxiii-
Ixxxix. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxiv, p. 572. Coll. Essays, viii,
p. 229). — This deals with " Biogenesis and Abiogenesis,"
the origin of life from life, as against " spontaneous
generation," or conversion of non-living matter into living.
After a sketch of the history of the question, showing
how abiogenesis had gradually been disproved for the
more obvious organisms, an account is given of the way
in which Pasteur and others disproved it for bacteria,
the last stronghold of the spontaneous generationists.
Huxley himself repeated these experiments, and some of
the flasks of sterilized hay-infusion he employed long
afterwards figured on his lecture bench.

But while the address clearly sets forth the disproof
of all supposed cases of abiogenesis so far as the present
is concerned, it proceeds to the logical conclusion that as
an "act of philosophic faith" it is necessary to believe
that the first living matter was so formed. It is suggested
that the earliest organisms must have been independent
of light, feeding in much the same way as fungi do now.
This last view has not found general acceptance.

Prominence is given to the practical bearing of re-
searches on bacteria, and other lower forms, on the treat-
ment of contagious and infectious diseases, whether of
human beings, animals or plants. The pioneer work of
Pasteur on the silkworm disease known as p^brine is

no THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

quoted, and scarlet fever is spoken of as a disease that
will ultimately be stamped out : —

" And thus mankind will have one more admonition that
« the people perish for lack of knowledge ; ' and that the allevia-
tion of the miseries, and the promotion of the welfare, of man
must be sought, by those who will not lose their pain?, in that
diligent, patient, loving study of all the multitudinous aspects of
Nature, the result of which constitute exact knowledge, or
cience.

8. " On the Relations of Penicillium, Torula, and
Bacterium" (Address to the Biological Section of the
Brit. Assoc, September 13, 1870. Report by E. Ray
Lankester in the O. J. Micros. Sci. New Series, x, 1870,
pp. 355-62. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxvii, p. 601). — Here are
detailed some of the results of investigations on certain
lower forms of plant life (compare 7). Huxley's atten-
tion was directed to these forms, partly from a desire to
get first-hand knowledge of types he intended to include
in a course on practical biology, and partly by the re-
searches of Dr. Bastian, in which bacteria were asserted
to have been spontaneously generated.

1871.

The School Board work of 1 87 1, which has already
been dealt with, naturally limited activity in other direc-
tions, though there is still plenty to record. The most
important event of the year was perhaps Huxley's ac-
ceptance of the Secretaryship of the Royal Society, which
arduous post he held for the next ten years. Among
the most important duties discharged during this period
were those in connection with the Challenger committee.

"We find the usual variety of lectures delivered to all
sort of audiences, and embracing a wide range of topics.
The one on " Administrative Nihilism" (Coll. Essays, i,

PRACTICAL BIOLOGY iii

p. 251), given at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, on
October 9, is of special interest, for it gives an account
of the educational policy which Huxley had so strenu-
ously urged upon the London School Board. It includes
a defence of educational progress for the benefit of the
masses, and recognizes that training of the intellect is not
the only thing at which to aim : —

"Thoughtfulness for others, generosity, modesty, and self-
respect, are the qualities which make a real gentleman or lady,
as distinguished from the veneered article, which commonly
goes by that name."

Locke's definition, " The end of Government is the
good of mankind," is accepted, and the conclusion
reached that the Government is justified in undertaking
to educate the people.

Discourses at the Royal Institution (May 12 and 19)
entitled " Berkeley on Vision," and " Metaphysics of
Sensation" (Coll. Essays, vi, 243) would seem to have
been suggested by the recent appearance of Eraser's
edition of Berkeley's works.

The most important lecture development of the year,
however, consisted in a summer course for teachers on
Biology, with practical work, an entirely new departure.
In this course he was assisted by E. Ray Lankester. It
is relevant to mention here that from 1870 to 1875,
Huxley was a member of a Royal Commission on Scientific
Instruction and the Advancement of Science.

An essay on "Yeast" (Sci. Mem., iii, xxxviii, p. 608.
Coll. Essays, viii, p. no), published in the Contemporary
Review for December, is a part of the work on lower
forms of life, to which Huxley had been devoting much
attention (cf. pp. 109-10). It gives a very interesting his-
torical account of the growth of our knowledge in regard
to alcoholic fermentation. A quotation is given from

112 THOMAS HENRY HUXT.EY

Schwann {Mihroscopische Untcrsiichungen) embodying a
view of this pioneer worker to the effect,

"... that every cell of the living body exerts an influence
on the matter which surrounds and permeates it, analogous to
that which the Torula [i.e. yeast plantj exerts on the saccharine
solution by which it is bathed. A wonderfully suggestive
thought, opening up views of the nature of the chemical pro-
cesses of the living body, which have hardly yet received all
the development of which they are capable."

The doctrine of "internal secretions" would appear
to be the modern expression of this epoch-making idea.
The essay also dwells on the importance of the " germ
theory," with regard to infectious and contagious disease.

An important article, entitled " Mr. Darwin's Critics,"
was contributed to the Contemporary Review for
November (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 120). This deals with
Wallace's Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,
Mivart's Genesis of Species, and a Qiiarterly Review notice
of Darwin's Descent of Man. Wallace denied that man
could have been evolved by natural selection, while
Mivart admitted its possibility for the bodily frame.
The Qiiarterly reviewer was long afterwards publicly
admitted to have been Bishop Wilberforce.

Huxley's essay follows Darwinism to its logical
conclusion, and adopts the view that there has been a
gradual evolution of mind. Mivart asserted the teach-
ings of orthodox Catholic authorities to be evolutionary,
citing more particularly the Jesuit writer. Father Suarez,
Huxley definitely disproves this, for the authority in
question. Writing to Darwin on this point, he says
(Life, i, p. 364) :—

" So I have come out in the new character of a defender of
Catholic orthodoxy, and upset Mivart out of the mouth of his
own prophet."

MANUAL ON VERTEBRATES 113

The estimate of Huxley's mental powers formed by
some of his friends is strikingly embodied in a remark
Darwin, when expressing his appreciation of " Mr. Dar-
win's Critics," quotes from Hooker :

"When I read Huxley, I feel quite infantile in intellect
(Life, i, p. 365).

The preparation of this defence of Darwin, and of the
article on " Administrative Nihihsm" took up no small
part of the brief summer holiday at St. Andrews, which
was also trenched upon by the British Association (Edin-
burgh Meeting) and other activities. Attempts, none too
successful, at golf-playing, did not sufficiently compensate
for over-pressure during the vacation, and a break-down
in health took place at the end of the year.

Mention must also be made of the Manual of the
Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals, vjhich. appeared in 1 87 1,
and though never revised, is still (thirty-five years later)
indispensable to the student of vertebrate anatomy. It
differs profoundly from average text-books in that most of
the contained matter is based either on the author's own
researches or his first-hand observation of facts.

This year, too, Huxley, Roscoe, and Balfour Stewart
undertook the joint editorship of a series of Science
Primers for Messrs. Macmillan.

H

CHAPTER XII

EGYPT LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY

PRACTICAL BIOLOGY [1872-75].

A CONSIDERABLE part of 1872 was necessarily spent in
the pursuit of health, for overwork and a variety of
worries, including financial ones, had led to a recurrence
of the old malady, dyspepsia, and a complete break-down
resulted. The necessary means for meeting the ex-
penses of a complete rest abroad were subscribed by
eighteen friends, and Huxley was apprised by an affec-
tionate and most delicately-worded letter from Darwin
(Life, i, p. 366), that his banking account had been
credited with the sum of 2000 guineas.

On January ii, he left Southampton for Egypt,
visiting Gibraltar on the way, partly for the purpose of
investigating, on behalf of the Admiralty, the infestation
of stored biscuits by the grubs of a small beetle {Ephest'ia
elatelld). The source of infection was discovered, and a
term put to the insects' ravages. On February i,
Huxley reached Alexandria, and went up the Nile as
far as Assouan. Of the effect of Egypt upon his mind,
Mr. Leonard Huxley thus speaks (Life, i, pp. 369-70) : —

" Egypt left a profound impression upon him. His artistic
delight in it apart, the antiquities and geology of the country
were a vivid illustration to his trained eye of the history of man
and the influence upon him of the surrounding country, the link
between geography and history."

Returning from Egypt by way of Italy, Catania,
Naples, Pozzuoli, Pompeii, and Rome were visited, and

114

PRACTICAL BIOLOGY 1 1 5

an ascent made of Vesuvius. London was reached on
April 6. Unfortunately the rest and change were of
little permanent benefit.

During this year Huxley's department migrated from
Jermyn Street to South Kensington, and, for the first
time, he was able to give his ordinary students the benefit
of practical instruction, on the same lines as those
adopted for the summer class in 187 1. Speaking of the
method employed, Mr. Leonard Huxley says (Life, i,
p. 376) :—

" It involved the verification of every fact by each student,
and was a training in scientific method even more than in
scientific fact."

This may have been the aim of the work, but if
"every fact" means all or most of those given in the
lectures, the statement is very far from being correct.
Every teacher of botany or zoology is fully aware that
only a selection of leading facts can be verified by ele-
mentary students.

But, even so, the advance on current methods was
a great one, and unanticipated in Britain, except by
Rolleston at Oxford, and he, according to Professor Ray
Lankester, had been influenced by Huxley's advice, and
fortunately had "the earlier opportunity of putting the
method into practice." The courses thus initiated were
on the " type system," a series of average organisms being
examined and dissected to illustrate the groups to which
they belong. This method has profoundly influenced
the teaching of Biology in this country, and fully
justified Huxley's expectation that it would " grow into
a big thing and bear great fruit." Of late, however, the
system has been somewhat discredited, since the practice
of a number of teachers, following the arbitrary require-

ii6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

ments of various examiners, has been to make the subject
a weary grind of disconnected facts, many of them of ex-
ceedingly trivial kind. For some years the extraction of
the minute ovaries of the earthworm was the goal of the
student of elementary Biology. Although the " pious
founder " must not be blamed for the way in which his
method has been perverted, yet he was accustomed to
enter into somewhat full detail regarding the anatomy
and physiology of the rabbit, thus limiting the time avail-
able for the other types, and creating a wrong impression
among the unintelligent.

Huxley's classes at South Kensington were made up
of two varieties of student, those who paid, and those
who were paid for by the Government, i.e., science
teachers in training. The latter were by many regarded
as of an inferior order, and had to attend every Saturday
to receive their weekly allowance of twenty-five shillings
(since reduced in amount) from the hands of a petty official,
factory fashion. Some of the professors even put up
two examination lists, thus emphasizing the gulf dividing
the two castes. Opposed as he always was to snobbery
in every form, Huxley made no such invidious distinc-
tion, and the names of sheep and goats alike were
associated in the same list.

It has elsewhere been mentioned {cf. pp. $6, 77), that
Huxley sympathized with the movement for the higher
education of women, and anticipated no ill effects from
placing every facility in their way, but an incident of this
year (1872) shows that he was opposed to "mixed"
classes in certain subjects. Miss Jex Blake, who was
furthering the cause of women medical students at Edin-
burgh, had asked him to examine their male demonstrator
in anatomy, with a view to his recognition by the Uni-
versity Court.

WOMEN MEDICAL STUDENTS 117

In a letter giving good reasons for declining to accede
to this request, he expresses his sympathy with the
aspirations of women in the direction of medicine, but
adds : —

" I as completely sympathize with those Professors of Anatomy,
Physiology, and Obstetrics, who object to teach such subjects to
mixed classes of young men and women brought together with-
out any further evidence of moral and mental fitness for such
association than the payment of their fees. In fact, with rare
exceptions, I have refused to admit women to my own lectures
on Comparative Anatomy for many years past. But I should not
hesitate to teach anything I know to a class composed of
women. . . " (Life, i, p. 387).

It greatly redounds to the credit of Scotland that
Huxley was very early recognized and appreciated there.
Of the four honorary doctorates conferred on him by
British Universities, the order was — Edinburgh, 1866;
Dublin, 1878; Cambridge, 1879; Oxford, 1885. In
1872, the students of Aberdeen elected him Lord Rector
of their University. His address in that capacity was
delivered in 1874, ^"^ "^^^^ ^^ '^^^^^ ^i^^ later.

The only scientific memoir that appeared in 1872 was
in completion of his monumental work on fossil fishes,
" British Fossils. Illustrations of the Structure of Cross-
opterygian Ganoids "(Mem. Geol. Survey, U.K., Decade
XIII, 1872 ; Sci. Mem., Supply. Vol., in, p. 68). It
deals with Holophagus gulo.

1873.

In 1873 Huxley's health was fortunately pretty well
established, largely as a result of a summer holiday spent
in the Auvergne district. This included not only exer-
cise and change of scene, but also change of work in the

ii8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

form of geological and archccological observations, and
a careful study of literature for and against the pseudo-
miracles of Lourdes. His travelling companion was
Hooker. One outcome of the holiday was the publication
by the latter of observations on glaciation in central France
(Nature, xiii, p. 31), though it afterwards turned out
that the results had been anticipated by others. The
trip ended in Switzerland and South Germany.

Those who crave for personal details will be interested
to know that during this tour Huxley consumed a
reasonable number of cigars. Hooker had previously
(1867) introduced him to cigarettes, as an antidote for
gastric disturbance. A somewhat ardent devotion to
" my Lady Nicotine " ultimately culminated in the pipe
(1875). The practice, however, was primarily thera-
peutic, for Hooker says (Life, i, p. 393, foot-note) : —

*' I have never blamed myself for the ' teaching him ' to
smoke, for the practice habitually palliated his distressing
symptoms when nothing else did, nor can his chronic illness be
attributed to the abuse of tobacco."

The present writer, however, does not propose to
promote the sale of one or more brands, by mentioning
them here.

Among other fresh duties undertaken were those
connected with his appointment as a Governor of Owens
College, which institution was opened in the autumn.
Much time was taken up in connection with the Royal
Commission on Scientific Instruction, etc.

Some of Huxley's essays were collected and published
this year under the title of Critiques and Addresses.
Though very largely read this never attained the extreme
popularity of Lay Sermons {cf. p. 1 05). An essay en-
titled "Problems of the Deep Sea" was put out in 1873

LORD RECTOR OF ABERDEEN 119

(Coll. Essays, viii, p. 37). It explained the aims of the
Challenger expedition, which had started on December 21,
1872, and gave a popular account of the various kinds of
apparatus employed. As a member of the Challenger
Committee of the Royal Society, Huxley had had a great
deal to do both with arranging the programme of the
expedition, and laying down the methods to be employed.

1874.

With health fairly well re-established, the work
accomplished during 1874 was of increased amount.
The most important event that took place in the early
part of the year was the Rectorial Address on " Univer-
sities : Actual and Ideal," given at Aberdeen (Coll.
Essays, iii, p. 189). — This compares to their disadvan-
tage—

"... the host of pleasant, moneyed, well-bred young gentlemen,
who do a little learning and much boating by Cam and Isis,"
with " many a brave and frugal Scotch boy, spending his summer
in hard manual labour, that he may have the privilege of wend-
ing his way in autumn to this University, with a bag of oatmeal,
ten pounds in his pocket, and his own stout heart to depend
upon through the northern winter."

The contrast is perhaps a little overdone, and reminds
one of the more recent utterance of a well-known noble-
man, who described a newly-established University as
adapted to '* the hard and even horny-handed workman,"
at the first meeting of the Court of that University.

The address describes the ideal University as one in
which all subjects of study are impartially treated, and as
to the student : —

** . . . the very air he breathes should be charged with that
enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a

I20 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

greater possession than much learning ; a nobler gift than the
power of increasing knowledge ; by so much greater and nobler
than these, as the moral nature of man is greater than the
intellectual ; for veracity is the heart of morality."

Then follows a plea for art and a scheme for the im-
provement of medical education. It is suggested that the
two first years be given to Anatomy, Physiology, Physio-
logical Chemistry and Physics ; the fundamental principles
of Chemistry, Physics, and Biology having been pre-
viously acquired. Huxley notes with satisfaction the
inclusion of Zoology as a compulsory subject in the Arts
course in Aberdeen. This, however, is not now the
case. The Address further advocates the establishment
of a Faculty of Science in every University, sets forth
the claims of research, touches on the question of exam-
inations, and points out the necessity for properly
organized secondary education.

It is gratifying to find that Huxley was able, at Aber-
deen, to do something towards bringing about the reforms
in medical education which he advocated in his Rectorial
Address.

The second important address of the year (August 2),
was upon "Joseph Priestley" (Coll. Essays, iii, p. I ), given
on the occasion of the presentation of a statue of Priestley
to the town of Birmingham by Lord Derby. He speaks
of Priestley as one of the men whose work helped to
bring about the expansion of science, and the scientific
spirit, which mark the nineteenth, as compared with the
eighteenth, century : —

" If we ask what is the deeper meaning of all these vast
changes, I think there can be but one reply. They meant that
reason has asserted and exercised her primacy over all provinces
of human activity : that ecclesiastical authority has been relegated
to its proper place ; tiiat the good of the governed has b^ea

WOMEN MEDICAL STUDENTS 121

finally recognized as the end of government, and the complete
responsibility of governors to the people as its means ; and that
the dependence of natural phenomena in general on the laws of
action of what we call matter has become an axiom."

The British Association was held at Belfast this year,
and on August 24 Huxley delivered an address " On the
Hypothesis that Animals are Automata, and its History"
(Coll. Essays, i, p. 199). This demonstrates that the
foundations of neuro-physiology were laid down by
Descartes, though the position that brutes are unconscious
machines is discarded as untenable. It is worth noting
that in this essay Huxley categorically denies the charges
of fatalism, materialism, and atheism, made at various times
against himself.

The views upon women's medical education, alluded
to in connection with Miss Jex Blake's letter of the
previous year, were further elaborated and expressed in
1874. This lady had failed in the Edinburgh examina-
tions, and Huxley pronounced adversely upon her papers
when these were referred to him for report. The follow-
ing extract from the Times for July 8, 1 874, clearly
explains his position : —

"As Miss Jex Blake may possibly think that my decision
was influenced by prejudice against her cause, allow me to add
that such prejudice as I labour under lies in the opposite direction.
Without seeing any reason to believe that women are, on the
average, so strong physically, intellectually, or morally, as men,
I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that many women are much
better endowed in all these respects than many men, and I am
at a loss to understand on what grounds of justice or public
policy a career which is open to the weakest and most foolish
of the male sex should be forcibly closed to women of capacity.

" We have heard a great deal lately about the physical dis-
abilities of women. Some of these alleged impediments, no
doubt, are really inherent in their organization, but nine-tenths
of them are artificial — the products of their modes of life. I

122 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

believe that nothing would tend so effectually to get rid of these
creations of idleness, weariness, and that ' over-stimulation of
the emotions,' which, in plainer-spoken days, used to be called
wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work, directed towards
a definite object, combined with an equally fair share of healthy
play, during the years of adolescence ; and those who are best
acquainted with the requirements of an average medical practi-
tioner will find it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach
that standard is like to prove exhausting to an ordinarily
intelligent and well-educated young woman."

One curious piece of work done in 1 874 was the writ-
ing of a report (dated January 27) on a spiritualistic
shnce attended, the conclusion being reached that this
was an unmitigated fraud. He had investigated the
subject in previous years.

For some time Huxley, in conjunction with W. K.
Parker, had been busily engaged in working at the
structure of the skull, a subject in which he had long
been interested {cf. p. 40). The following scientific
memoirs of 1874 were mostly on this subject.

1. " On the Structure of the Skull and of the Heart
of Menobranchus lateralis" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1874, PP*
186-204. Read March 17, 1874. ^^^' Mem., iv, i, p. i).

2. "Note on the Development of the Columella Auris
in the Amphibia (Nature, xi, 1875, PP- 68-9. Read at
the Brit. Assoc, Belfast, August 25, 1874. Sci. Mem.,
iv, II, p. 23).

3. "Preliminary Note upon the Brain and Skull of
Amphioxus lanceolatus" (Proc. Roy. Soc, xxiii, 1875,
pp. 127-32. Received December 17, 1874. ^^''
Mem., iv, iii, p. 26).

4. " On the Bearing of the Distribution of the
Portio Dura upon the Morphology of the Skull " (Proc.
Phil. Soc, Cambridge, ii, 1876, pp. 348-51. Read
May II, 1874. Sci. Mem., iv, iv, p. 32).

ENCrCLOPMBIA BRITANNIC A 123

5. "On the Classification of the Animal Kingdom"
(J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xii, 1876, pp. 199-226. Read
December 3, 1874. Sci. Mem., iv. v, p. 35).

Huxley advised Professor Baynes, the general editor
of the Eticyclopcedia Britannlca, about the apportionment
of the biological articles to be included in the ninth
edition, and himself wrote up Actinozoa, Amphibia,
Animal Kingdom, Biology, and Evolution. The prepara-
tion of these articles began late in 1873 and went on
intermittently till 1878, when that on Evolution was
completed.

After recommending a particular specialist as suitable
for the task of writing an important article, Huxley
adds, —

((

, if it had not been for the accident of being a pro-
crastinating, impracticable ass, he could have been a distinguished
man. But he is a sort of Balaam-Centaur, with the asinine
stronger than the prophetic moiety" (Life, i, p. 452).

The current system of supporting applications by
means of testimonials would certainly be abandoned if all
such documents were frankly conceived and epigram-
matically written in this style.

1875

The earliest important event of 1875 was the delivery of
an address at the Royal Institution on January 29, the
subject being "■ On the Recent Work of the Challenger
Expedition, and its bearing on Geological Problems "
(Proc. Roy. Inst., vii, 1875, PP- 354-7- Sci. Mem.,
iv, VI, p. 61. Coll. Essays, viii, p. 69). — This gives
an account of the various deposits accumulating on the
sea-floor, and seeks to explain the unfossiliferous nature

124 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

of some geological strata by comparing them with the
red clays characteristic of the deepest parts of the oceans.
The absence of Prof. Wyville Thomson as chief
naturalist to the Challenger expedition necessitated the
appointment of deputies to carry on the work of his
Edinburgh classes. For the summer session of 1875
Huxley's services were secured, and he managed to
review the entire animal kingdom in fifty-four lectures
(May 3 to July 23), given to a record class of 353
students. In a letter to Tyndall (dated August 13,
1875) ^^ s^ys ' —

" My work, at Edinburgh got itself done very satisfactorily,
and I cleared about £1000 by the transaction, being one of the
few examples known of a Southern coming north and pillaging
the Scots" (Life, i, p. 447).

In the Life (pp. 36-7) of one of the pupils attending
this particular class, the late Joseph Thomson, the follow-
ing interesting impressions of Huxley as a teacher are
given : —

" The experience of studying personally under Huxley was
a privilege to which he had been looking forward with eager
anticipation ; for he had already been fascinated with the charm
of Huxley's writings, and had received from them no small
amount of mental stimulus. Nor were his expectations disap-
pointed. But he found the work to be unexpectedly hard, and
very soon he had the sense of panting to keep pace with the
demands of the lecturer. It was not merely that the texture
of scientific reasoning in the lectures was so closely knit, —
although that was a very palpable fact — but the character of
Huxley's terminology was entirely strange to him. It met him
on his weakest side, for it presupposed a knowledge of Greek
(being little else than Greek compounds with English termina-
tions), and of Greek he had none,

" * Huxley's usual lectures,' he writes, ' are something awful
to listen to. One half of the class, which numbers about four
hundred, have given up in despair from sheer inability to follow

EDINBURGH LECTURES 125

him. The strain on the attention of each lecture is so great as
to be equal to an ordinary day's work. I feel quite exhausted
after them. And then to master his language is something
dreadful. But, with all these drawbacks, I would not miss
them, even if they were ten times as difficult. They are some-
thing glorious, sublime. . . . Huxley is still very difficult to
follow, and I have been four times in his lectures completely
stuck and utterly helpless. But he has given us eight or nine
beautiful lectures on the frog.' "

For comparison with the above, the writer can only
offer his personal experience of one course of regular
lectures (1879-80). These were perhaps less com-
pressed than those given in Edinburgh, and in any
case were perfectly easy to follow, though to reap full
benefit from them a good deal of previous reading was
necessary. Note-taking, however, was an exceedingly
difficult matter, even in shorthand, owing to Huxley's
great fluency and his habit of illustrating the subject by
means of rapid blackboard sketches, without ceasing to
speak. Such terms as "glorious" and "sublime" are
somewhat out of place. " Lucid " and " incisive " would
be nearer the mark. No particular knowledge of Greek
was necessary in 1879, whatever may have been the case
in 1875.

For some years the anti-vivisectionists had been making
their voices heard both in and out of season. Huxley
among others had quite undeservedly earned the reputa-
tion of being perfectly callous to the sufferings of animals
employed for physiological experiment. As a matter of
fact he was extremely tender-hearted where animals were
concerned, and expressly refrained from entering upon
investigations involving vivisection. But this was a very
different matter from denying the necessity for expert
research in directions where the benefit of mankind was
involved.

126 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

During 1875 the vivisection controversy culminated
in the appointment of a " Royal Commission on the
Practice of subjecting Live Animals to Experiments for
Scientific Purposes." In writing to the then Home
Secretary (Mr, Cross) to express his willingness to
serve, Huxley sufficiently defines his position in the
matter : —

" If I can be of any service I shall be very glad to act on the
Commission, sympathising as I do on the one hand with those
who abhor cruelty to animals, and, on the other, with those
who abhor the still greater cruelty to man which is involved in
any attempt to arrest the progress of physiology and of rational
medicine" (Life, i, p. 439).

The report of the Commission, presented in the early
part of 1876, was decidedly unsatisfactory, and the legisla-
tion which followed upon it was still more so.

In 1875 the first edition appeared of A Course of
Practical Instruction in Elementary Biology, in the prepara-
tion of which the late Dr. H. N. Martin collaborated.
Up to this time the only practical book available to the
student was Rolleston's Forms of Animal Life^ which was
not only expensive but of limited use for laboratory
purposes, since it merely described the Oxford series of
dissections, and gave no practical directions at all.
" Huxley and Martin" was largely used for many years,
and did yeoman service in advancing the cause of
practical biology. Owing largely to its employment,
the '* type system " became firmly established as the
recognized method of teaching biology in this country.
Unfortunately, in course of time, it underwent a curious
perversion, due to unintelligent teaching and still more
unintelligent examining. A mass of minute detail gradu-
ally became associated with the chosen types, the acquisi-
tion of which prevented average students from grasping

CROCODILES AND LUNG-FISHES 127

fundamental principles. A concrete instance of "not
seeing the wood for the trees."

The three following scientific memoirs represent part
of the work done during 1875, though the two last were
not published till the following year : —

1. "On Stagonolepis Robertsoni, and on the Evolu-
tion of the Crocodilia" (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xxxi, 1875,
pp. 423-38. Sci. Mem., iv, vii, p. 66). — This famous
memoir propounds an evolutionary classification of croco-
dilian reptiles, including the ancient extinct type named.
The hinder openings of the nasal cavities are placed far
back in the throat in recent crocodiles, and so disposed
that the mouth can be kept open under water without
danger of suffocation, an obvious adaptation to the aquatic
habit. The way in which this arrangement has gradually
evolved is here set forth.

2. "Contributions to Morphology. Ichthyopsida. No.
I. On Ceratodus Forsteri, with Observations on the
Classification of Fishes" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1876, pp.
24-59. Received January 4, 1875. Sci. Mem., iv,
VIII, p. 84). — The form in question is the Australian
Lung-fish, one of the few surviving members of a once
widely distributed and dominant marine group, which
have been saved from extinction by taking to a life in
fresh water, where the struggle for existence is less
severe. The classificatory part of the memoir, largely
based on the characters of the skull and fins, is distinctly
of epoch-making character, and has had to be reckoned
with in all subsequent attempts to place the systematics
of fishes on a sound footing.

3. " On the Position of the Anterior Nasal Apertures
in Lepidosiren" (op. cit., pp. 180-1. Received January 7,
1876. Sci. Mem., iv, ix, p. 125). — This is a note on
the South American Lung-fish.

CHAPTER XIII

VISIT TO AMERICA [1876-77].

One of the earlier efforts of 1876 was a Friday Evening
Discourse, delivered on January 28, at the Royal Institution
" On the Border Territory between the Animal and the
Vegetable Kingdoms," afterwards published in Macmillatis
Magazine (Sci. Mem., iv, xi, p. 145. Coll. Essays, viii,
p. 162). Here the conclusion is reached that, —

" the difference between animal and plant is one of degree rather
than kind, and that the problem whether, in a given case, an
organism is an animal or a plant, may be essentially insoluble."

A second lecture " On the Teleology and Morphology
of the Hand," given at Glasgow on February 15, was
never published in its original form, but is of special
interest because it emphasizes the Darwinian doctrine
that teleology and evolution are so far from being irre-
concilable that the former, broadly expressed, is a
necessary corollary of the latter. The old teleology, as
more particularly set forth in Paley's Natural Theology
(one of Huxley's favourite Sunday books as a boy), held
that every organism and organ was separately created for
a special purpose, finding this the only explanation of the
adaptation of structure to function everywhere to be
found. Bell's famous Bridgewater Treatise on the human
hand develops this view with reference to a particular
instance, and no doubt suggested to Huxley his choice of
subject for the Glasgow lecture.

The new teleology explains the adaptation of structure

128

INTEREST IN FICTION 129

to function as the result of evolution, and renders in-
telligible many things, such as vestigial organs and im-
perfect adaptations, which were simply ignored by its
forerunner. While not demanding a theistic standpoint,
it is not inconsistent with this.

As in the previous year a course of lectures was given
at Edinburgh during the Summer Session, and one or two
incidents relating to this time deserve notice. In a home
letter (dated May 8, Life, i, p. 458), we find a list of
the light and other literature taken North as a set-ofF
against work, and note that, unlike Darwin, Huxley re-
tained an interest in fiction : —

" I have been getting through an enormous quantity of read-
ing, some tough monographs that I brought with me, the first
volume of Forster's Life of Siuft, Goodsirs Life, and a couple
of novels of George Sand, with a trifle of Paul Heyse. You
should read George Sand's Cesarine Dietrich and La Mare au
Diable that I have just finished. She is bigger than George
Eliot, more flexible, a more thorough artist. It is a queer thing
by the way, that I have never read Consuelo. I shall get it here.
When I come back from my lecture I like to rest for an hour
or two over a good story. It freshens me wonderfully."

It would have been decidedly entertaining to see
Huxley on May 25, sitting beside the Lord High Com-
missioner at the General Assembly. His report of the
proceedings is a model of brevity : —

"... I heard an ecclesiastical row about whether a certain
church should be allowed to have a cover with IHS on the
Communion Table or not. After three hours' discussion the
IHSers were beaten " (Life, i, p. 458).

The social side of the temporary residence in Edinburgh
at this time left many pleasant memories, especially of the
numerous visits to Dr. (afterwards Sir John) Skelton at
I

I30 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

the Hermitage of Braid, which laid the foundation of a
warm and long friendship.

The great event of 1876 was the American visit,
Huxley's " second honeymoon," in the course of which
he once more met (after a separation of thirty years), his
favourite sister Lizzie (Mrs. Scott), whose love and en-
couragement had done so much for him in early years.
The occasion of the visit was the delivery of the opening
address at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

New York was reached on August 5, and two
characteristic remarks made on first sight of the city have
been recorded by Mr. Smalley (London correspondent of
the New York Tribune). In response to a question as to
the names of two buildings : —

" I told him the Tribune and the Western Union Telegraph
buildings. ' Ah,' he said, ' that is interesting ; that is American.
In the Old World the first things you see as you approach a
great city are steeples ; here you see, first, centres of intelligence.'
Next to those the tug-boats seemed to attract him as they tore
fiercely up and down and across the bay. He looked long at
them and finally said, ' If I were not a man I think I should
like to be a tug.' They seemed to him the condensation and
complete expression of the energy and force in which he delighted
(Life, i, p. 461).

Huxley was naturally intensely interested in Prof.
Marsh's collection of fossils from the wonderfully rich
strata of the Western Territories, which demonstrated
the American origin of the horse, and proved of the first
importance in placing the doctrine of evolution on a firm
palaeontological basis. The geological history of the
horse was to be the subject of one of the New York
lectures, and the study of the Yale specimens necessitated
important alterations in what had been written for this
purpose. Marsh thus describes Huxley's attitude in the
matter : —

AMERICAN VISIT 131

" He then informed me that all was new to him, and that my
facts demonstrated the evolution of the horse beyond question,
and for the first time indicated the direct line of descent of an
existing animal. With the generosity of true greatness, he gave
up his own opinions in the face of new truth, and took my con-
clusions as the basis of his famous New York lecture on the
horse" (Life, i, p. 462).

The American trip included a week at Niagara, where
the falls gave Huxley enormous pleasure, not merely as a
spectacle, but also as a standard instance of a particular
sort of geological action. The scientific enjoyment
derived from the study of the latter only served to heighten
the artistic impression.

On September 12, his "Address on University
Education" was delivered without notes, at the opening
of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (Coll. Essays,
iii, p. 235). The ''educational ladder" so much talked
of in these later days, is here advocated : —

" The primary school and the university are the alpha and
omega of education."

Secondary schools, if established, should be true inter-
mediaries,—

"... keeping on the wide track of general culture, and not
sacrificing one branch of knowledge for another."

The university student should be subjected to an initial
test at the end of his first term. "Within the limits of a
prescribed curriculum there should be a free choice of
subjects. Half the fortune of the pious founder had
been devoted to establishing a hospital in Baltimore, and
hence some part of this address is devoted to the question
of medical education, from which Huxley suggests that
zoology, botany and materia medica should be excluded.

132 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

the elements of the two first being a fitting part of an
earlier stage.

The Johns Hopkins University was established with
special reference to the encouragement of research, re-
garding which we read : —

" But so sure as it is that men live not by bread, but by ideas,
so sure is it that the future of the world lies in the hands of
those who are able to carry the interpretation of nature a step
further than their predecessors ; so certain is it that the highest
function of a university is to seek out those men, cherish them,
and give their ability to serve their kind full play."

The waste of money on mere architecture is deprecated,
a plea entered for reasonable payment of the staiF, and
that these with other experts should be properly repre-
sented on the governing body, if only in the interest of
good and rational appointments to the professoriate.

The address concludes with the expression of a firm
belief in the future of America, —

"... but the one condition of success, your sole safeguard,
is the moral worth and intellectual clearness of the individual

citizen."

The three lectures on Evolution were delivered at New
York on September i8, 20 and 22 (Coll. Essays, iv,
p. 46). The first deals with "The Three Hypotheses
respecting the History of Nature," i.e., that of perpetual
sameness, the special creation hypothesis, and the doctrine
of evolution. This leads on to the second lecture on
" The Hypothesis of Evolution : the Neutral and the
Favourable Evidence," and this again to the third lecture
on "The Demonstrative Evidence of Evolution," illustrated
by the special case of the horse, for which the American
strata furnish such valuable materials. The results
derived from a study of these were embodied in a lecture

RECEPTION IN AMERICA 133

given at the London Institution on December 4, en-
titled, "On Recent Additions to the Knowledge of the
Pedigree of the Horse."

Huxley left New York on September 23, and his
visit to America must be regarded as marking the com-
mencement of a new stage in his career. Mr. Leonard
Huxley thus summarizes the nature of his reception and
its import : —

" Certainly the people of the States gave him an enthusiastic
welcome ; his writings had made him known far and wide ; as
the manager of the Californian department of the Philadelphia
Exhibition told him, the very miners of California read his
books over their camp fires ; and his visit was so far like a royal
progress, that unless he entered a city disguised under the name
of Jones or Smith, he was liable not merely to be interviewed, but
to be called upon to ' address a few words ' to the citizens. . . .
His reception in America may be said to emphasize his definite
establishment in the first rank of English thinkers. It was a
signal testimony to the wide extent of his influence, hardly sus-
pected, indeed, by himself; an influence due above all to the
fact that he did not allow his studies to stand apart from the
moving problems of existence, but brought the new and re-
generating ideas into contact with life at every point, and that
his championship of the new doctrines had at the same time
been a championship of freedom and sincerity in thought and
word against shams and self-deceptions of every kind. It was
not so much the preacher of new doctrines who was welcomed,
as the apostle of veracity — not so much the teacher of science
as the teacher of men" (Life, i, p. 460).

The lectures, etc., delivered in the States were published
in 1877 under the title of American Addresses. In this
volume was also included a lecture " On the Study of
Biology" (Sci. Mem., iv, xiv, p. 248. Coll. Essays, iii,
p. 262), given at South Kensington on December 16
(1876) in connection with the Loan Collection of Scien-
tific Apparatus. It is pointed out that the idea of estab-
lishing a science of life (biology), bringing together the

134 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

disciplines dealing with organisms and their functions,
occurred independently to three contemporaries, Bichat,
Lamarck and Treviranus. Lamarck first used the word
'* Biologie," and Treviranus wrote a Biologie in six volumes
(1802-22).

The reasons for studying biology are next set forth.
Its utility is obvious from the fact that it,

"... tends to give right ideas, which are essential to the
foundation of right practice, and to remove wrong ideas, which
are the no less essential foundations and fertile mothers of every
description of error in practice."

Another reason for the study is to be found in the con-
sideration that man is not an isolated and peculiar being,
but one of a series of organisms, displaying unity in
structure and function. The important bearings of the
subject on infectious disease, and its value to agriculture
are finally pointed out.

As to the method of studying biology, the type system,
as adopted at South Kensington, is advocated. The im-
portance of rationally arranged museums is also emphasized.
The needs of the general public in this respect are, —

"... not met by constructing a sort of happy hunting-ground
of miles of glass cases ; and, under the pretence of exhibiting
everything, putting the maximum amount of obstacle in the way
of those who wish properly to see anything."

As to the time when biology may best be studied,
it is held that this should form part of an ordinary school
training. Human anatomy and physiology, and also
botany, are pointed out as the most suitable branches of
the subject for the purpose. Special classes, with practical
work, might well be established in secondary schools.

Six lectures to working-men " On the Evidence as to
the Origin of Existing Vertebrate Animals " were given

SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES 135

in the Royal School of Mines this year (Nature, xiii,
1876, pp. 388-9, 410-12, 429-30, 467-9, 514-6; xiv,
1876, pp. 33-4- Sci. Mem., iv, xii, p. 163). The
recent advances made in palaeontology are here lucidly
explained : —

" The accurate information obtained in this department of
science has put the fact of evolution beyond a doubt ; formerly,
the great reproach of the theory was, that no support was lent
to it by the geological history of living things ; now, whatever
happens, the fact remains that the hypothesis is founded on the
firm basis of palseontological evidence."

During 1876, too, a memoir was published ** On the
Nature of the Craniofacial Apparatus of Petromyzon " (J.
Anat. and Physiol., x, 1876, pp. 412-29. Sci. Mem.,
iv, x, p. 128). — This deals with the skeleton of the
head in the lamprey, the complicated elements of which
are described with the most painstaking accuracy. The
interpretation given to some of them, however, has not
met with general acceptance.

1877.

A good deal of time was taken up during 1877 in
furthering educational interests of various kinds.
Huxley's work as a member of the Scottish Universities
Commission necessitated three visits to Edinburgh, and
the intimate acquaintance he had gained of the Scottish
system would seem to have made a favourable impression
as to its worth, in strong contrast with his consistently
uncompromising attitude in regard to those supposedly
effete centres of learning, Oxford and Cambridge. At
any rate his eldest son was entered as a student at St.
Andrews in the fall of the year ; though he subsequently
went up to Oxford.

136 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

The legislation which had been the outcome of the
report of the Vivisection Commission suggested a
lecture on "Elementary Instruction in Physiology," de-
livered at the Anthropological Conference on May
22 (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 294). Here animal physiology
is spoken of as an essential part of domestic economy,
and Huxley's supposed desire to introduce vivisection
into school teaching disclaimed. The infliction of pain
on animals for the purposes of gain or sport is strongly
deprecated.

For some time the necessity for promoting a proper
system of technical education had been strongly borne in
upon some of the more enlightened members of the
community, the Clothworkers' Company and the Society
of Arts co-operating to this end. In July of this year a
committee of the City Companies applied to Huxley,
among others, for a statement of his opinions regarding
the aims and methods of technical education. The fol-
lowing paragraph, taken from the extensive report he
supplied, goes to the root of the matter: —

" It appears to me that if every person who is engaged in an
industry had access to instruction in the scientific principles on
which that industry is based ; in the mode of applying these
principles to practice ; in the actual use of the means and appli-
ances employed ; in the language of the people who know as
much about the matter as we do ourselves ; and lastly, in the
art of keeping accounts. Technical Education would have done
all that can be required of it,"

An address on " Technical Education," given at the
Working Men's Club and Institute, on December I,
gives further expression to Huxley's ideas on the subject
(Coll. Essays, iii, p. 404). Since an anatomist may be
regarded as a handicraftsman, he excuses himself for
venturing into the only educational domain with which

TECHNICAL EDUCATION 137

he had so far had nothing to do. The address then
proceeds to consider what prehminary instruction an
anatomist should receive. There should be good ele-
mentary education, including the elements of physical
science, especially physics and chemistry. The power of
reading Latin, French, and German should be acquired.
Some attention ought to be paid to drawing, and physical
training is an essential.

The dangers of attempting too much are depicted.
Children subjected to educational over-pressure are, —

"... conceited all the forenoon of life, and stupid all its
afternoon."

Speaking of the preparatory education of the handi-
craftsman, Huxley says that this should have nothing
"technical" about it, for, "the workshop is the only
real school for a handicraft." Intellectual gear is not the
only equipment of value : —

" Activity, probity, knowledge of men, ready mother-wit,
supplemented by a good knowledge of the general principle in-
volved in his business, are the making of a good foreman."

Provision should be made for giving lads of real
ability a chance.

He continued for a number of years to take an
active interest in technical education, and his warm
advocacy of the movement had much to do with the
establishment of the Cowper Street Schools, and the
Central Institution of the City and Guilds of London,
which took place in 1 881.

The University of Cambridge conferred the degree of
LL.D. {honoris causa) upon Charles Darwin in November,
and at the Philosophical Club dinner, held the same
evening, Huxley paid an eloquent tribute to him (in his

138 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

absence). The tardiness of Cambridge in recognizing
one of her greatest sons was delicately hinted at, and
though in a letter to Darwin (dated November 21) de-
liberate sneering is denied, a milder form of sarcasm is
admitted : —

" There was only a little touch of the whip at starting, and
it was so tied round with ribbons that it took them some time
to find out where the flick had hit " (Life, i, p. 479).

If the following extract from Huxley's notes of the
speech fairly represents the utterance, the " ribbons "
would distinctly add to the unpleasantness of the "flick."
It was, however, an after-dinner speech : —

" Mr. Darwin's work had fully earned the distinction you
have conferred upon him four-and-twenty years ago ; but I
doubt not that he would have been found in that circumstance
an exemplification of the wise foresight of his revered intel-
lectual mother. Instead of offering her honours when they ran
a chance of being crushed beneath the accumulated marks of
approbation of the whole civilized world, the University has
waited until the trophy was finished, and has crowned the edifice
with the delicate wreath of academic appreciation " (Life, i,
p. 480).

Examples have already been given to show that if
Huxley's unrivalled power of scathing sarcasm was often
manifested, generosity and kindness of heart were even
more characteristic. Mr. Leonard Huxley records a
good instance for 1877 (Life, i, p. 482) : —

" A German scientific worker in England, whom we will
call H., had fallen into distress, and applied to him for help,
asking if some work could not be put in his way. Huxley
could think of nothing immediate but to suggest some lessons
in German literature to his children, though in fact they were
well provided for with a German governess. . . ."

An unnamed donor, however, furnished the necessary

CHARACTERISTIC GENEROSITY 139

money, in response to a request from Huxley, who says
in a letter to his wife : —

" It came in the nick of time, as H. came an hour or two
after it arrived, and with many apologies told me he was quite
penniless. The poor old fellow was quite overcome when I
told him of how matters stood, and it was characteristic that as
soon as he got his breath again, he wan'ed to Icnow when he
would begin teaching the children."

Besides those already-mentioned, lectures were given
this year on "Starfishes and their Allies" (March 7,
Royal Institution) ; " The Geological History of Birds"
(June 7, Zoological Gardens) ; and " Belemnites "
(December 17, London Institution).

The article on " Evolution" (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 187),
for the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Brltannica was
completed this year, but did not appear till the following.
There is evolution of the individual (ontogeny), and
evolution of animal groups (phylogeny). The study of
the latter, as based on observation followed by specula-
tion, does not go further back than the seventeenth
century, and Harvey's work serves as a point of departure.
The subject matter is grouped under eight headings : —

1. Cartesianism, a mechanical theory of the physical
universe, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibnitz, De Maillet,
BufFon, Erasmus Darwin, Goethe, Lamarck, Treviranus,
Charles Darwin, Wallace, Spencer, and Haeckel.

2. Gradations of Structure among Living Beings,
Leeuwenhoek and Swammerdam, Lamarck, Cuvier and
Von Baer.

3. Analogy between Ontogeny and Phylogeny,
Meckel,

4. Morphology, or Form and Structure ; Variations
on a Common Plan, Belon and WoliF.

5. Vestigial or Rudimentary Organs.

I40 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

6. Influence of a Changing Environment in Modifying
Organisms. Climate, Station and Hybridization recog-
nized before the time of Treviranus. Use and Disuse,
advanced as factors by Lamarck. Ultimately Darwin's
theory of Natural Selection.

7. Geographical Distribution, Darwin and Wallace.

8. Geological Succession, Darwin and Wallace.
Riitimeyer, Kowalewsky, Marsh, and Huxley. Work
on pedigrees of Mammals and Crocodiles.

The strongest evidence in favour of Evolution afforded
by 7 and 8.

Two important books also appeared in 1877, i,e.,
Physiography and The Anatomy of hivertehrated Afiimals.
The former embodies the preliminary lectures which
Huxley had given for some sessions as an introduction to
his regular course (see p. 37), and of which the Thames
basin furnished the main theme. This work had an ex-
tensive circulation for many years, and a judiciously edited
revised edition has recently been put before the public.
With the intention, apparently, of encouraging the
teaching of general principles as laid down by Huxley,
the Science and Art Department added " Physiography "
to their list of subjects, the first examination being held
in May 1878. The result was unfortunate, for the
syllabus was conceived in a singularly unscientific spirit,
and consisted of an extraordinary aggregate of disjecta
membra. The subject, indeed, was about as unscientific
as the *' General Elementary Science," of which so much
has been heard during late years. But we must re-
member that it belongs to the time when any degree of
any British University qualified its possessor to earn
Government grants in any science or pseudo-science
subject, from Pure Mathematics and Naval Construction
to the Principles of Agriculture.

ANATOMY OF INVERTEBRATES 141

The Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals shares many of the
characteristics of the sister work on Vertebrates, published
in 1 87 1, and embodies a large amount of Huxley's own
original researches. It does not, however, reach the
same high level of excellence.

One scientific memoir has to be mentioned for 1877 —
"The Crocodilian Remains found in the Elgin Sand-
stones, with Remarks on the Ichnites \t.e., fossil foot-
prints] of Cummingstone " (Mem. Geol. Survey U.K.,
Monograph III, 1877. Sci. Mem., iv, xiii, p. 188).
— This deals chiefly with the remains of the primitive
extinct crocodile Stagonolepis {cf. p. 127).

CHAPTER XIV

HARVEY AND HUME CRAYFISHES DUBLIN AND

CAMBRIDGE DOCTORATES [1878-79].

During the early part of 1878, immediately after the
marriage of his eldest daughter, Huxley's work was
greatly interfered with by an outbreak of diphtheria in
his family, which occasioned the most serious anxiety.
His then demonstrator, the late Prof. T. J. Parker,
writes of this :—

" I never saw a man more crushed than he was during the
dangerous illness of one of his daughters, and he told me that,
having then to make an after-dinner speech, he broke down for
the first time in his life, and for one painful moment forgot
where he was and what he had to say."

To which his private assistant at the time, the late
Prof. G. B. Howes, adds: —

" When, after two days, he looked in at the laboratory, his
dejected countenance and tired expression betokened only too
plainly the intense anxiety he had undergone" (Lite, i,
p. 492).

While the above exemplifies Huxley's devotion as a
father, the visit of Prof. Marsh to England just after
this trying time, illustrates his character as a friend. Of
this Marsh himself writes as follows (Recollections,
p. 6) :-

" How kind Huxley was to every one who could claim his
friendship, I have good cause to know. Of the many instances

142

CHARACTER AS A FRIEND 143

which occur to me, one will suffice. One evening in London,
at a grand annual reception of the Royal Academy, where
celebrities of every rank were present, Huxley said to me,
* When I was in America, you showed me every extinct
animal that I had read about, or even dreamt of. Now, if
there is a single living lion in all Great Britain that you wish
to see, I will show him to you in five minutes ? ' He kept his
promise, and before the reception was over, I had met many
of the most noted men in England, and from that evening, I
can date a large number of acquaintances, who have made my
subsequent visits to that country an ever-increasing pleasure "
(Life, i, p. 494).

Huxley's anxiety at this time about the faiHng health
of Prof. W. K. Clifford affords further evidence, were
such necessary, of his sterling character as a friend.

Another personal matter of the year was the confer-
ment of the degree of LL.D. {honoris causa) of the
University of Dublin, which took place during the
meeting of the British Association, where he had
delivered an address to the section on Anthropology.
The subject was " Informal Remarks on the Conclusions
of Anthropology," the central point being that Man is a
legitimate subject of scientific study, and that the possi-
bility of his origin by a process of evolution must be
admitted (Nature, xviii, 1878, pp. 445-8. Sci. Mem,,
iv, XV, p. 265).

In a letter to his eldest daughter later in the year
(December 7), upon the Afghan war, Huxley shows
that absorbing scientific and educational work did not
preclude a lively interest in political events and the wel-
fare of the empire : —

" I am strong for justice as any one can be, but it is real justice,
not sham conventional justice which the sentimentalists howl
for.

" At this present time real justice requires that the power of

144 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

England should be used to maintain order and introduce civiliza-
tion wherever that power extends.

" The Afghans are a pack of disorderly, treacherous, blood-
thirsty thieves and caterans, who should never have been allowed
to escape from the heavy hand we laid upon them, after the
massacre of twenty thousand of our men, women (and) children in
the Khoord Cabul Pass thirty years ago.

" We have let them be, and the consequence is they now lend
themselves to the Russians, and are ready to stir up disorder
and undo all the good we have been doing in India for the last
generation.

" They are to India exactly what the Highlanders of Scot-
land were to the Lowlanders before 1745 ; and we have just as
much right to deal with them in the same way.

" I am of opinion that our Indian Empire is a curse to us.
But so long as we make up our minds to hold it, we must also
make up our minds to do those things which are needful to hold
it effectually, and in the long-run it will be found that so doing
is real justice both for ourselves, our subject population, and the
Afghans themselves " (Life, i, p. 489).

As regards scientific work, 1878 must be described as
a Harvey, Hume and Crayfish year. The first direction
of activity was dictated by the fact that April i was the
tercentenary of Harvey's birth. On January 25, Huxley
lectured at the Royal Institution on " William Harvey "
(Fortnightly Review, New Ser., xxiii, 1878, pp. 167-90.
Sci. Mem., iv, xviii, p. 319). In this lecture Harvey's
scientific attitude is shown to be independent of the
Baconian philosophy, and occasion is taken to make an
attack on the extreme views of anti-vivisectionists. A
speech on Harvey was also delivered at the Memorial
Meeting, held on July 18, by the College of Physicians.

A book on Hume took the form of a volume of the
English Men of Letters Series, written at the request of
the General Editor, Mr. (now the Right Hon.) John
Morley. Huxley's strong philosophical predilections
here find full expression. A few quotations will at the

LIFE OF HUME 145

same time illustrate his philosophical attitude, and his
power as a writer.

The Preface (dated January 1894) ^° ^^^ sixth volume
of the Collected Essays^ most of which is a reprint of the
Hume, begins with an eloquent tribute to Descartes and
Socrates, but Plato is severely handled : —

" The Platonic philosophy is probably the grandest example
of the unscientific use of the imagination extant; and it would
be hard to estimate the amount of detriment to clear thinking
effected, directly and indirectly, by the theory of ideas, on the
one hand, and by the unfortunate doctrine of the baseness of
matter, on the other."

Berkeley and Hume are then mentioned as the greatest
philosophical reformers since Descartes, and the following
advice is given to those who wish to acquire a sound
knowledge of philosophy, but do not desire merely
" to discourse fluently and learnedly about philosophical
questions ..." : —

" If . . . you are animated by the much rarer desire for real
knowledge ; if you want to get a clear conception of the deepest
problems set before the intellect of man, there is no need, so
far as I can see, for you to go beyond the limits of the English
tongue. Indeed, if you are pressed for time, three English
authors will suffice ; namely, Berkeley, Hume, and Hobbes.

" If you will lay your minds alongside the works of these
great writers — not with the view of merely ascertaining their
opinions, still less for the purpose of indolently resting upon
their authority, but to the end of seeing for yourselves how far
what each says has its foundation in right reason — you will
have had as much sound philosophical training as is good for
any one but an expert. And you will have had the further
advantage of becoming familiar with the manner in which three
of the greatest masters of the English language have handled
that noble instrument of thought."

A vigorous sketch of Hume's Life occupies the first
K

146 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

part of the book, while the second and larger part is
taken up by Hume's philosophy. The following passages
near the end of the former, having reference to Hume's
self-selected place of burial on the Calton Hill, are
among the finest of their kind that Huxley ever penned : —

" From the summit of this hill, there is a prospect unequalled
by any to be seen from the midst of a great city. Westward
lies the Forth, and beyond it, dimly blue, the far-away Highland
hills : eastward, rise the bold contours of Arthur's Seat and
the rugged crags of the Castle rock, with the gray Old Town
of Edinburgh ; while, far below, from a maze of crowded
thoroughfares, the hoarse murmur of the toil of a polity of
energetic men is borne upon the ear. At times a man may be
as solitary here as in a veritable wilderness ; and may meditate
upon the epitome of nature and of man — the kingdoms of this
world — spread out before him.

" Surely, there is a fitness in the choice of this last resting-
place by the philosopher and historian, who saw so clearly that
these two kingdoms form but one realm, governed by uniform
laws and alike based on impenetrable darkness and eternal
silence ; and faithful to the last to that profound veracity which
was the secret of his philosophic greatness, he ordered that the
simple Roman tomb which marks his grave should bear no
inscription but

DAVID HUME,

BORN 17 I I. DIED 1776.

Leaving it to posterity to add the rest.

" It was by the desire and at the suggestion of my friend,
the Editor of this Series, that I undertook to attempt to help
posterity in the difficult business of knowing what to add to
Hume's epitaph ; and I might, with justice, throw upon him
the responsibility of my apparent presumption in occupying a
place among the men of letters, who are engaged with him, in
their proper function of writing about English Men of Letters.

" That to which succeeding generations have made, are
making, and will make, continual additions, however, is Hume's
fame as a philosopher ; and, though I know that my plea will

PHILOSOPHY OF HUME 147

add to my offence in some quarters, I must plead, in extenua-
tion of my audacity, that philosophy lies in the province ot
science, and not in that of letters."

To demonstrate the scientific nature of Hume's philo-
sophy would appear to be the chief aim of the sequel of
Huxley's book. The view stated in the last sentence of
the above quotation is expanded in Chap. I. " On the
Object and Scope of Philosophy " : —

" If the origin of the contents of the mind is truly a philo-
sophical problem, then the philosopher who attempts to deal
with that problem, without acquainting himself with the
physiology of sensation, has no more intelligent conception of
his business than the physiologist, who thinks he can discuss
locomotion, without an acquaintance with the principles of
mechanics ; or respiration, without some tincture of chemistry.
On whatever ground we term physiology, science, psychology
is entitled to the same appellation. . . . Hence, as philosophy
is, in great measure, the exponent of the logical consequences
of certain data established by psychology ... it would seem
to be an obvious conclusion that philosophers are likely to be
successful in their inquiries, in proportion as they are familiar
with the application of scientific method to less abstruse
subjects. . . . And it is accordant with this presumption,
that the men who have made the most important positive
additions to philosophy, such as Descartes, Spinoza and Kant,
not to mention more recent examples, have been deeply imbued
with the spirit of physical science ; and, in some cases, such as
those of Descartes and Kant, have been largely acquainted with
its details. ... In truth, the laboratory is the fore- court of
the temple of philosophy ; and whoso has not offered sacrifices
and undergone purification there, has little chance of admission
into the sanctuary " (pp. 60-1).

Then follows the application to the case of Hume : —

" It is assuredly one of Hume's greatest merits that he
clearly recognised the fact that philosophy is based upon
psychology ; and that the inquiry into the contents and the
operations of the mind must be conducted upon the same

148 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

principles as a physical investigation, if what he calls the
* moral philosopher ' would attain results of as firm and definite
a character as those which reward the ' natural philosopher
(pp. 62-3).

Similarly in Chap. III. " On the Origin of the Im-
pressions " : —

"... As a further set-off to Hume's credit, it must be
noticed that he grasped the fundamental truth, that the key to
the comprehension of mental operations lies in the study of the
molecular changes of the nervous apparatus by which they are
originated " (p. 94).

And again in Chap. V. on " The Mental Phenomena
of Animals " : — ■

" It is a remarkable example of Hume's sagacity that he
perceived the importance of a branch of science which, even
now, can hardly be said to exist ; and that, in a remarkable
passage, he sketches in bold outlines the chief features of com-
parative psychology " (p. 126).

Huxley's own views on the distinction between genius
and talent, given at the end of the same chapter, are also
interesting : —

" The child who is impelled to draw as soon as it can hold a
pencil ; the Mozart who breaks out into music as early ; the
boy Bidder who worked out the most complicated sums with-
out learning arithmetic ; the boy Pascal who evolved Euclid
out of his own consciousness : all these may be said to have
been impelled by instinct, as much as are the beaver and the
bee. And the man of genius is distinct in kind from the man
of cleverness, by reason of the working within him of strong
innate tendencies — which cultivation may improve, but which
it can no more create, than horticulture can make thistles bear
figs. The analogy between a musical instrument and the mind
holds good here also. Art and industry may get much music,
of a sort, out of a penny whistle ; but, when all is done, it has
no chance against an organ. The innate musical potentialities
of the two are infinitely different " (pp. 132-3).

PHILOSOPHY OF HUME 149

In Chap. VII. on " The Order of Nature : Miracles,"
we find Huxley's notable parallel between miracles and
centaurs : —

" And nothing short of a careful monograph, by a highly
competent investigator, accompanied by figures and measurements
of all the most important parts of a centaur, put forth under
circumstances which could leave no doubt that falsification or
misinterpretation would meet with immediate exposure, could
possibly enable a man of science to feel that he acted conscien-
tiously, in expressing his belief in the existence of a centaur on
the evidence of testimony.

" This hesitation about admitting the existence of such an
animal as a centaur, be it observed, does not deserve reproach,
as scepticism, but moderate praise, as mere scientific good faith.
It need not imply, and it does not, so far as I am concerned,
any a priori hypothesis that a centaur is an impossible animal :
or, that his existence, if he did exist, would violate the laws of
nature. Indubitably, the organization of a centaur presents a
variety of practical difficulties to an anatomist and physiologist ;
and a good many of those generalizations of our present experi-
ence, which we are pleased to call laws of nature, would be
upset by the appearance of such an animal, so that we should
have to frame new lav/s to cover our extended experience.
Every wise man will admit that the possibilities of nature are
infinite, and include centaurs ; but he will not the less feel it his
duty to hold fast, for the present, by the dictum of Lucretius,
' Nam certe ex vivo Centauri non fit imago,' and to cast the
entire burtlien of the proof, that centaurs exist, on the shoulders
of those who ask him to believe the statement. Judged by the
canons either of common sense, or of science, which are indeed
one and the same, all ' miracles ' are centaurs, or they would
not be miracles ; and men of sense and science will deal with
them on the same principles" (pp. 1 60-1).

Huxley's concluding remarks in the last chapter (XI.)
on " The Principles of Morals," are also well worth
quoting : —

" In which ever way we look at the matter, morality is based
on feeling, not on reason ; though reason alone is competent to

I50 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

trace out the effects of our actions and thereby dictate conduct.
Justice is founded on the love of one's neighbour ; and goodness
is a kind of beauty. . . And as there are Pascals and Mozarts,
Newtons and Raffaelles, in whom the innate faculty for science
or art seems to need but a touch to spring into full vigour, and
through whom the human race obtains new possibilities of
knowledge and new conceptions of beauty : so there have been
men of moral genius, to whom we owe ideals of duty and
visions of moral perfection, which ordinary mankind could
never have attained : though, happily for them, they can feel
the beauty of a vision, which lay beyond the reach of their
dull imaginations, and count life well spent in shaping some
faint image of it in the actual world" (pp. 240-1).

Some time during 1878 Huxley had drafted out a
scheme for an English Men of Science Series, which Messrs.
Macmillan proposed to publish. His own share was to
consist of Harvey and Darwin. The project, however,
was not carried out.

The scientific interest of the year chiefly centres in
Crustaceans. Lectures on the Crayfish were given at
Jermyn Street to working-men (April 29-June 3), and
a course on Crustaceous Animals was delivered at the
Zoological Gardens (May 17-June 21). Besides which
a communication was made to the Zoological Society
" On the Classification and the Distribution of the Cray-
fishes" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, pp. 752-88. Read
June 4, [878. Sci. Mem., iv, xvi, p. 275).

Huxley also described a new kind of dissecting micro-
scope he had devised, in a Presidential Address to the
Quekett Club (J. Quekett Micros. Club, v, 1 8 78-9, pp.
144-5. DeHvered November 22, 1878. Sci. Mem., iv,
XVII, p. 316).

1879.

During this year Huxley was elected a Governor
of Eton, and in this capacity was able, later on, to

CAMBRIDGE DOCTORATE 151

give effect to some of his views regarding secondary
education.

One of the most interesting personal events of 1879
took place at Cambridge on June 10, when he received
the degree of LL.D. {honoris causa). The following
speech was delivered on the occasion by Mr. Sandys, the
Public Orator : —

" Academi inter silvas qui verum quserunt, non modo ipsi
veritatis lumine vitam hanc umbratilem illustrare conantur, sed
illustrissimum quemque veritatis investigatorem aliunde delatum
ea qua par est comitate excipiunt. Adest vir cui in veritate
exploranda ampla sane provincia contigit, qui sive in animantium
sive in arborum et herbarum genere quicquid vivit investigat,
ipsum illud vivere quid sit, quali ex origine natum sit : qui
exquirit quse cognationis necessitudo inter priores illas viventium
species et has quas etiam nunc supersunt, intercedat. Olim in
Oceano Australi, ubi rectis, ' oculis monstra natantia ' vidit,
victoriam prope primam, velut alter Perseus, a Medusa reportavit ;
varias deinceps animantium formas quasi ab ipsa Gorgone in
saxum versas sagacitate singulari explicavit ; vitas denique uni-
versae explorandas vitam suam totam dedicavit. Physicorum
inter principes diu honoratus, idem (ut verbum mutuemur a
Cartesio illo cujus laudes ipse in hac urbe quondam praedicavit)
etiam ' metaphysica ' honore debito prosecutus est. Ilium demum
liberalitur educatum esse existimat qui cum ceteris animi et
corporis dotibus instructus sit, tum praesertim quicquid turpe sit
oderit, quicquid sive in arte sive in rerum natura pulchrum sit
diligat ; neque tamen ipse (ut ait Aristoteles) ♦ animalium parum
pulchrorum contemplationem fastidio puerili reformidat ; ' sed in
perpetua animantium serie hominis vestigia perscrutari conatus,
satis ampla liberalitate in universa rerum natura ' humani nihil a
se alienum putat.' Duco ad vos virum intrepidum, facundum,
propositi tenacem, Thomam Henricum Huxley" (Life, ii, p. 4).

By a somewhat curious coincidence one of the de-
scriptive expressions at the end of the speech embodied
the Huxley motto, " Propositi tenax." The academic
recognition from Cambridge would appear to have given

152 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

pleasure to the recipient, not unmixed with amusement,
for in a letter written to Baynes the previous day he
says : —

'* I shall be glorious in a red gown at Cambridge to-morrow,
and hereafter look to be treated as a PERSON OF RE-
SPECTABILITY. I have done my best to avoid that mis-
fortune, but it's of no use " (Life, ii, p, 4).

One of the earliest lectures of the year was a Friday
Evening Discourse, delivered at the Royal Institution,
" On Sensation and the Unity of Structure of Sensiferous
Organs" (Nineteenth Century, v, 1879, PP- 59?-^^^-
Sci. Mem., iv, xx, p. 357. Coll. Essays, vi, p. 288).
Descartes is claimed as being the first enunciator " of the
essential elements of the true theory of sensation," and
the subsequent progress of opinion sketched. The
essential parts of the chief sense organs are shown to
arise from the external layer of the embryo, while the
differences between these organs are explained as adapta-
tions to stimuli of different kind. And a sensation is
finally defined as, —

" the equivalent in terms of consciousness for a mode of motion
of the matter of the sensorium."

The metaphysical side of the question is of course
dealt with, for, —

" In truth, the attempt to nourish the human intellect upon a
diet which contains no metaphysics is about as hopeful as that
of certain Eastern sages to nourish their bodies without destroy-
ing life. . .

*' By way of escape from the metaphysical Will-o'-the-wisps
generated in the marshes of literature and theology, the serious
student is sometimes bidden to betake himself to the solid ground
of physical science, but the fish of immortal memory, who
threw himself out of the frying-pan into the fire, was not more
ill-advised than the man who seeks sanctuary from philosophical

AMATEUR NATURALISTS 153

persecution within the walls of the observatory or of the labora-
tory. It is said that 'metaphysics' owe their name to the fact
that, in Aristotle's works, questions of pure philosophy are dealt
with immediately after those of physics. If so, the accident is
happily symbolical of the essential relations of things ; for meta-
physical speculation follows as closely upon physical theory as
black care upon the horseman."

At the end of the essay Idealist and Materialist are
alike criticized, and the concluding passage runs : —

"Strike out the propositions about which neither contro-
versialist does or can know anything, and there is nothing left
for them to quarrel about. Make a desert of the Unknowable,
and the divine Astraea of philosophic peace will commence her
blessed reign."

A lecture on " Snakes " was given at the Zoological
Gardens on June 5, and repeated at the London Institu-
tion on December 1. As President of the QuekettClub,
Huxley delivered a stimulating Annual Address (J.
Quekett Micros. Club, v, 1878-9, pp. 250-5. Delivered
July 25, 1879. Sci. Mem., iv, xxi, p. 374). The interest
lies in certain suggestions made to amateur naturalists as
to the kind of work by which they can best assist in the
advancement of science.

There are some respects in which amateurs are better
off than professional scientists. For they are not obliged,
like many of the latter, to keep fully abreast of research
in all lines, and often have leisure to pursue a kind of
detailed work from which the professional, for lack of
time, must keep aloof: —

" If I may say so without offence, such amusement may be
regarded as an involuntary ploughing and harrowing of the
ground, making it receptive of the seeds of science, and preparing
ing it for rich harvests in the future. So, as I said before,
whatever member of the Club has joined it for the sake of mere
amusement has done a good thing for himself, and has done

154 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

probably more than he knows to help those who make these
pursuits the serious business of their lives."

Dallinger and Drysdale's patient work on the Infusoria
is commended as a pattern, his own researches on the
Crayfish are alluded to, and a tribute paid to Lyonet
who,

" spent many years over his caterpillar, and the result was a
monograph that will last for all time."

In 1868 he had described certain jelly-like masses,
found in deep-sea soundings, as a primitive animal, on
which the name of " Bathybius Haeckelii " was conferred.
The researches of the Challenger subsequently proved the
supposed organism to be a chemical precipitate due to
the action of the alcohol used as a preservative. At the
British Association, held this year at Sheffield, Huxley
publicly admitted his error in the course of a humorous
speech. And when, in his regular course of lectures
the following winter, this pseudo-organism was spoken
about, he added : —

*' And I can say, gentlemen, without petulance, that I heartily
wish Bathybius were at the bottom of the sea."

A particularly interesting book was published in 1879
under the title of The Crayfish : An Introduction to the
Study of Zoology. This was part of the result of much
time devoted to the study of Crustaceans, and is a
masterpiece of lucid exposition. The structure, func-
tions, development, etc. of the crayfish are described in a
luminous fashion, and employed as a basis for illustrating
the more important general principles of zoology. The
work has proved of the greatest value to many successive
generations of students, and will always be regarded as a
classic.

ESTIMATE OF ARISTOTLE 155

This year, too, Huxley completed his Introductory
Primer to Macmillan's Science Primer Series, but it did not
appear till the following year.

Two scientific memoirs of the year are as follows : —

1. " On the Characters of the Pelvis in the Mammalia,
and the Conclusions respecting the Origin of Mammals
which may be based on them " (Proc. Roy. Soc, xxviii,
1879, pp. 395-405. Read March 6, 1879. Sci. Mem.,
iv, XIX, p. 345). — That Mammals have descended from
Amphibians is the conclusion at which the memoir
arrives. It has now been superseded by the theory of a
reptilian origin.

2. '' On Certain Errors respecting the Structure of the
Heart attributed to Aristotle " (Nature, xxi, 1 879, pp. I-5.
Sci. Mem., iv, xxii, p. 380). — It is illustrative of Hux-
ley's untiring energy that in late middle life, in spite of
exacting and numerous activities, he should begin the
study of Greek, actuated with the desire of studying
Aristotle and the Greek Testament first hand. The
paper now under consideration was one result of this
self-imposed task.

Aristotle describes the mammalian heart as consisting
of three instead of four chambers. The explanation is
that what is now called the right auricle was considered
to be a swelling of the great veins. The following
estimate of Aristotle's powers as a naturalist finds a place
in the paper : —

" He carried science a step beyond the point at which he
found it ; a meritorious, but not a miraculous, achievement.
What he did required the possession of very good powers of
observation ; if they had been powers of the highest class he
would hardly have left such conspicuous objects as the valves
of the heart to be described by his successors."

CHAPTER XV

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY [1880-83].

Probably the most interesting lecture for 1880 was the
Friday Evening Discourse, " On the Coming of Age of
the Origin of Species," delivered at the Royal Institution
on March 19 (Nature, xxii, 1880, pp. I-4. Sci. Mem.,
iv, XXIV, p. 395. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 227). — Here
Huxley tells us that, —

"... having conceived a tender affection for a child of
what appeared to me to be of such remarkable promise, I acted
for some time in the capacity of a sort of under-nurse, and thus
came in for my share of the storms which threatened the life of
the young creature."

Since those days the exactly opposite danger of accept-
ing the main doctrines without reflection had become
apparent, a tendency to be deprecated, —

"... for the scientific spirit is of more value than its products,
and irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned
errors . . . the essence of the scientific spirit is criticism,"

The prophetic character of the Origifi is pointed out,
and illustrated by the palaontological discoveries made
since its publication, as well as by Hofmeister's pioneer
work on vascular cryptogams, which helped to erase one
of the supposed sharp boundary lines in the vegetable
kingdom.

Another address of the year " On the Method of
Zadig : Retrospective Prophecy as a Function of Science,"

156

SCIENCE AND CULTURE 157

was given at the Working Men's College (Coll. Essays, iv,
p. l). Zadig is the hero of a little romance written by
Voltaire, where he figures as a sort of Babylonian Sher-
lock Holmes. Cuvier alludes to Zadig in his great work
on Ossemens Fossiles. The object of Huxley's address is
to show that scientific method as practised by Cuvier
and scientists in general is no other than the method of
common sense applied by Zadig to matters unscientific.

He also delivered the opening address for the Josiah
Mason Science College at Birmingham, on October i.
It was entitled ''Science and Culture" (Coll. Essays, iii,
p. 134). Priestley, as a Birmingham celebrity (whose
statue Huxley had unveiled in 1874, cf. p. 120), is
naturally mentioned at the beginning of the address.
Fame was not his chief desire, for the study of his life
leaves no doubt that he, — -

"... set a much higher value upon advancement of know-
ledge, and the promotion of that freedom of thought which is
at once the cause and the consequence of intellectual progress."

The foundation of Mason's College is regarded as an
important recognition of the claims of physical science,
and with special reference to the technical needs of
Birmingham, it is asserted that, —

"... the diffusion of thorough scientific education is an
absolutely essential condition of industrial progress, and that the
College which has been opened to-day will confer an inestimable
boon upon those whose livelihood is to be gained by the practice
of the arts and manufactures of the district."

The conditions of the endowment excluded party
politics, theology and " mere literary instruction and
education." Huxley expresses sympathy with the last
restriction, in so far as it means, —

" The ordinary classical course of our schools and universities.

158 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

... Its inclusion would probably lead to the introduction of
the ordinary smattering of Latin and Greek."

It is interesting to note that Mason's College found
itself very much hampered by the limitations as to litera-
ture, etc., imposed, and it gradually found ways and means
to convert itself into an University College of the ordinary
kind.

The impression made by Huxley on one of his literary
contemporaries finds expression this year in Skelton's
Crookit Meg, where the village sage and sutor is thus
described (p. 72) : —

" For the rest it will be enough to add that this long, gaunt,
bony cobbler of old boats was — was (may I take the liberty,
Mr. Professor ?) a village Huxley of the year One. The colour-
less brilliancy of the great teacher's style, the easy facility with
which the drop of light forms itself into a perfect sphere as it
falls from its pen, belong indeed to a consummate master of the
art of expression, which Adam of course was not ; but the
mental lucidity, justice, and balance, as well as the reserve of
power, and the Shakespearian gaiety of touch, which made the
old man one of the most delightful companions in the world, were
essentially Huxleian."

The scientific interest of 1880 centres about the dog,
on which Huxley intended to write a companion volume
to his Crayfish^ though the intention was never carried
out. Two lectures were delivered at the Royal Institu-
tion " On Dogs, and the Problems connected with them "
(April 6 and 13), and working-men, at Jermyn Street,
had also the opportunity of learning something on the
subject. Two memoirs represent the technical side of
the matter : —

I. "On the Epipubis in the Dog and the Fox" (Proc.
Roy. Soc, XXX, 1879-80, pp. 162-3. Read February 5,
1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxiii, p. 393).

INSPECTOR OF FISHERIES 159

2, ** On the Cranial and Dental Characters of the
Canids" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1880, pp. 238-88. Read April
6, 1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxv, p. 404).

To these must be added : —

3. " On the Application of the Laws of Evolution to
the arrangement of the Vertebrata, and more particularly
of the Mammalia" (op. cit.,pp. 649-62. Read December
14, 1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxvi, p. 457). In this memoir
stress is laid upon the guiding principles of excess and
defect of development, and it is proposed to divide
Mammals into four groups, i.e., Eutheria (higher forms),
Metatheria (pouched mammals), Prototheria (duck-mole
and spiny ant-eater), and Hypotheria (hypothetical primi-
tive types.

1881.

At the beginning of 1881 Huxley was appointed to
the Inspectorship of Fisheries (salary £^06), rendered
vacant by the death of Frank Buckland, and in October
his status at South Kensington underwent some altera-
tion. For the Royal School of Mines and Normal
School were united, and instead of being Lecturer on
General Natural History to the former, he became Pro-
fessor of Biology in and Dean of the new combination
(salary ;^8oo). His work as Dean should have been
remunerated by an extra ;^200, but a thrifty Govern-
ment saved this by special arrangement. At the same
time, the long-standing connection with the Geological
Survey practically, though not nominally, came to an
end.

Huxley's qualifications for the Inspectorship were, of
course, unquestionable, and his activity in that direction
is summarized in an account given by Sir Spencer Wal-
pole to Mr. Leonard Huxley (Life, ii, pp. 22-7), which

i6o THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

also includes a personal estimate. From this the follow-
ing quotations are taken : —

"This protracted investigation [i.e., of the Scotch Herring
Commission (1862), and the Sea Fisheries Commission (1864-5)],
had convinced Professor Huxley that the supply of fish in the
deep sea was practically inexhaustible, and that, however much
it might be necessary to enforce the police of the seas by protect-
ing particular classes of sea fishermen from injury done to their
instruments by the operations of other classes, the primary duty
of the legislature was to develop sea fishing, and not to place
restrictions on sea fishermen for any fears of an exhaustion of
fish.

" His scientific training, moreover, made him ridicule the
modern notion that it was possible to stock the sea by artificial
methods. He was not, however, equally certain that particular
areas of sea shore might not be exhausted by our fishing. . . .
If, however. Professor Huxley was strongly opposed to un-
necessary interference with the labours of sea fishermen, he was
well aware of the necessity of protecting migratory fish, like salmon,
against over-fishing. . . .

" It is needless to say that, as a companion, Professor Huxley
was the most delightful of men. Those who have met him in
society, or enjoyed the hospitality of his house, must have been
conscious of the singular charm of a conversation, which was
founded on knowledge, enlarged by memory, and brightened by
humour. ... In conversation Professor Huxley displayed the
quality which distinguished him both as a writer and a public
speaker. He invariably used the right words in the right sense. . . .

" No one could have known Professor Huxley intimately
without recognising that he delighted in combat. He was never
happier than when he was engaged in argument or controversy,
and he loved to select antagonists worthy of his steel. . . . If,
however, a love of argument and controversy occasionally led
him into hot water, I do not think that his polemical tendencies
ever cost him a friend. His antagonists must have recognised
the fairness of his methods, and must have been susceptible to
the charm of the man. The high example which he set in con-
troversy, moreover, was equally visible in his ordinary life. Of
all the men I have ever known, his ideas and his standard were,
on the whole, the highest. He recognised that the fact of his

CARLYLE MEMORIAL i6i

religious views imposed on him the duty of living the most
upright of lives, and I am very much of the opinion of a little
child, now grown into an accomplished woman, who, when she
was told that Professor Huxley had no hope of future rewards,
and no fear of future punishments, emphatically declared : ' Then
I think Professor Huxley is the best man I have ever known.' "

The recognition accorded by Cambridge during the
preceding year was now followed by still more decided
marks of appreciation from Oxford. For not only was
Huxley asked if he would stand for the Linacre Pro-
fessorship in succession to Rolleston, but also whether
he would consent to be nominated for the Mastership of
University College. In both cases the reply was in the
negative, for to say nothing of the pecuniary loss in-
volved, and his reluctance to quit London, with its
absolute freedom, Huxley doubted whether the "psychical
atmosphere of Oxford " would suit him, and thought he
was not " cut out for a Don."

An earlier event of the year was the death of Carlyle
(in February), whose influence upon Huxley has already
been mentioned {cf. p. 3). A direct acknowledgment
of this is to be found in a letter (dated March 9), to
Lord Stanley of Alderley, in answer to one asking him to
support the movement for a Carlyle Memorial : —

" Anything I can do to help in raising a memorial to Carlyle
shall be most willingly done. Few men can have dissented
more strongly from his way of looking at things than I, but I
should not yield to the most devoted of his followers in gratitude
for the bracing wholesome influence of his writings when, as a
very young man, I was essaying without rudder or compass to
strike out a course for myself" (Life, ii, p. 34).

A National Fishery Exhibition was held at Norwich in
the spring, and here (on April 21), he delivered a lecture
on "The Herring" (Nature, xxiii, 1 88 1, pp. 607-13.

L

1 62 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Sci. Mem., iv, xxvii, p. 473). In this the impossibility
of exhausting the supply by human agency is pointed
out.

Part of the interest of the year has relation to medicine,
for Huxley was appointed a member of the Royal Com-
mission on the Medical Acts (the work of which was
completed in 1882), and also lectured (on August 9) to
the International Medical Congress in London on " The
Connection of the Biological Sciences with Medicine"
(Nature, xxiv, 1 88 1, pp. 342-6. Sci. Mem., iv, xxviii,
p. 493. Coll. Essays, iii, p. 347). In this a sketch is
given of the rise of medicine from crude beginnings to
the position of a science, and pathology is claimed as a
branch of biology, this having been recognized after the
establishment of the cell theory. Modern physiology,
upon which pathology depends, begins with Descartes : —

" There can be no question, then, as to the nature or the
value of the connection between medicine and the biological
sciences. There can be no doubt that the future of pathology
and of therapeutics, and, therefore, that of practical medicine,
depends upon the extent to which those who occupy themselves
with those subjects are trained in the methods and impregnated
with the fundamental truths of biology."

It is suggested that no more important subject could
be considered by the Congress, than how best, without
including useless details, the medical student, —

'' . . . may be enabled to obtain^a firm grasp of the great truths
respecting animal and vegetable life, without which, notwith-
standing all the progress of scientific medicine, he will still find
himself an empiric,"

The British Association was held at York this summer,
and Huxley chose a historical subject on which to lecture,
" The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology " (Nature, xxiv,

RISE OF PALEONTOLOGY 163

1881, pp. 452-5. Sci. Mem., iv, xxix, p. 508. Coll.
Essays, iv, p. 24). This sketches the history of the
subject, and ends as follows : —

" I have always had a certain horror of presuming to set a
limit upon the possibilities of things. Therefore I will not ven-
ture to say that it is impossible that the multitudinous species of
animals and plants may have been produced, one separately from
the other, by spontaneous generation ; nor that it is impossible
that they should have been independently originated by an end-
less succession of miraculous creative acts. But I must confess
that both these hypotheses strike me as so astoundingly improbable,
so devoid of a shred of either scientific or traditional support,
that even if there were no other evidence than that of palaeontology
in its favour, I should feel compelled to adopt the hypothesis of
evolution. Happily, the future of palaeontology is independent
of all hypothetical considerations. Fifty years hence, whoever
undertakes to record the progress of palaeontology will note the
present time as the epoch in which the law of succession of the
forms of the higher animals was determined by the observation
of palasontological facts. He will point out that, just as Steno
and Cuvier were enabled from their knowledge of the empirical
laws of co-existence of the parts of animals to conclude from a
part to the whole, so the knowledge of the law of succession of
forms empowered their successors to conclude, from one or two
terms of such a succession, to the entire series ; and thus to divine
the existence of forms of life, of which, perhaps, no trace
remains, at epochs of inconceivable remoteness in the past."

At the end of the year we unfortunately find a record
of bad health, but not enough to completely stop work,
nor amounting to a complete breakdown.

1882.

The deaths of Charles Darwin and Francis Maitland
Balfour in 1882, were both felt by Huxley as heavy
personal losses. The former event took place on
April 19, and a short notice by Huxley appeared in

1 64 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Nature on the 27th (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 244). The obituary
notice for that periodical was undertaken by Romanes,
who submitted the draft to Huxley for criticism. One
paragraph in the answering letter (dated May 9), com-
pares Darwin with other epoch-making naturalists : —

" I am not likely to take a low view of Darwin's position in
the history of science, but I am disposed to think that BufFon and
Lamarck would run him hard in both genius and fertility. In
breadth of view and in extent of knowledge these two men were
giants, though we are apt to forget their services. Von Baer was
another man of the same stamp ; Cuvier, in a somewhat lower
rank, another ; and J. Miiller another" (Life, ii, p. 39).

Later on (June 9, 1885), Huxley paid a tribute to
Darwin's memory when, in the capacity of President of
the Royal Society, he handed over a statue to H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales, as representing the Trustees of the
British Museum (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 248). And, finally,
he wrote the somewhat belated Obituary Notice for the
Royal Society (Proc. Roy. Soc, xliv, 1888. Coll. Essays,
ii, p. 253). These, together with other utterances and
writings, enable us to form a just notion of Huxley's
views regarding Darwin and his work. For example,
the peroration to the speech on the occasion of unveiling
Darwin's statue runs thus : —

" We do not make this request [/>., acceptance of the statue]
for the mere sake of perpetuating a memory ; for so long as men
occupy themselves with the pursuit of truth, the name of Darwin
runs no more risk of oblivion than does that of Copernicus, or
that of Harvey.

" Nor, most assuredly, do we ask you to preserve the statue
in its cynosural position in this entrance hall of our National
Museum of Natural History as evidence that Mr. Darwin's views
have received your official sanction ; for science does not recog-
nise such sanctions, and commits suicide when it adopts a creed.

" No, we beg you to cherish this memorial as a symbol by

ESTIMATE OF DARWIN 165

which, as generation after generation of students enter yonder
door, they shall be reminded of the ideal according to which
they must shape their lives, if they would turn to the best account
the opportunities offered by the great institution under your
charge."

An allusion to Darwin's scientific position in England
is also contained in a letter to the Bishop of Ripon (dated
June 16, 1887 : —

" Of deceased Englishmen who belong to the first half of the
Victorian epoch, I should say that Faraday, Lyell, and Darwin
had exerted the greatest influence, and all three were models of the
highest and best class of physical philosophers " (Life, ii, p. 162).

Huxley was awarded the Darwin Medal in 1894, and
in his eloquent speech delivered at the Anniversary
dinner of the Society, on St. Andrew's Day, gave an
account of his long association with Darwin, and the part
he played in defending and promulgating Darwinism.
The speech included the following passage, which sum-
marizes the characteristics and methods of Darwin in a
way it would be difficult to surpass : —

" Those who wish to attain to some clear and definite solution
of the great problems which Mr, Darwin was the first person to
set before us in later times must base themselves upon the facts
which are stated in his great work, and, still more, must pursue
their inquiries by the methods of which he was so brilliant an
exemplar throughout the whole of his life. You must have his
sagacity, his untiring search after the knowledge of fact, his
readiness always to give up a preconceived opinion to that which
was demonstrably true, before you can hope to carry his doctrines
to their ultimate issue ; and whether the particular form in which
he has put them before us may be such as is finally destined to
survive or not is more, I venture to think, than anybody is capable
at this present moment of saying. But this one thing is perfectly
certain — that it is only by pursuing his methods, by that wonder-
ful single-mindedness, devotion to truth, readiness to sacrifice all
things for the advance of definite knowledge, that we can hope

1 66 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

to come any nearer than we are at present to the truths which
he struggled to attain (L,ife, ii, p. 390. Extracted from the
Times report).

While Darwin died full of years as well as honours,
the career of Francis Maitland Balfour, Professor of
Comparative Morphology at Cambridge, was cut short
at the age of thirty-one by a fall from the Aiguille
Blanche on Mont Blanc. With a scientific reputation
second to none, won more particularly in the department
of comparative embryology, many regarded Balfour as
the most likely zoologist to continue Huxley's work. In
a letter to Dohrn, dated September 24, 1882, Huxley
himself remarks : —

*' Heavy blows have fallen upon me this year in losing
Darwin and Balfour, the best of the old and the best of the
young. I am beginning to feel older than my age myself, and
if Balfour had lived I should have cleared out of the way as
soon as possible, feeling that the future of Zoological Science
in this country was very safe in his hands " (Life, ii, p. 38).

And Mr. Leonard Huxley says : —

*' Since the death of Edward Forbes, no loss outside the
circle of his family had affected my father so deeply. For
three days he was utterly prostrated, and was scarcely able
either to eat or sleep" (Life, ii, p. 37).

Turning now to the utterances on education for the
year, we find an address " On Science and Art in Rela-
tion to Education," given to the members of the Liverpool
Institution (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 160). This " Hansar-
dises" an address previously given to the Liverpool
Philomathic Society {cf. p. 90), and disclaims any inten-
tion to promote the sweeping away of all forms of culture
and instruction except those of physical science : —

" I have never yet met with any branch of human knowledge

OBJECT OF EDUCATION 167

which I have found unattractive — which it would not have
been pleasant to me to follow, so far as I could go ; and I have
yet to meet with any form of art in which it has not been
possible for me to take as acute a pleasure as, I believe, it is
possible for most to take."

In allusion to his wide experience of races and castes
he says : —

" And I have never found, in any of these conditions of life,
a deficiency of something which was attractive. Savagery has
its pleasures, I assure you, as well as civilization, and I may even
venture to confess — if you will not let a whisper of the matter
get back to London, where I am known — I am even fain to
confess, that sometimes in the din and throng of what is called
' a brilliant reception,' the vision crosses my mind of waking up
from the soft plank which had afforded me satisfactory sleep
during the hours of night, in the bright dawn of a tropical
morning, when my comrades were yet asleep, when every sound
was hushed, except the little lap-lap of the ripples against the
sides of the boat, and the distant twitter of the sea-bird on the
reef. And when that vision crosses my mind, I am free to con-
fess I desire to be back in the boat again."

His previous opinions about the educational value of
physical science are reaffirmed, given a proper selection
of topics, practical teaching, practical teachers, and a
sufficiency of time. Otherwise the subject is best left
alone : —

"The whole object of education is, in the first place, to train
the faculties of the young in such a manner as to give their
possessors the best chance of being happy and useful in their
generation ; and, in the second place, to furnish them with the
most important portions of that immense capitalized experience
of the human race which we call knowledge of various kinds."

Education should involve reasoning and feeling, in-
tellectual exercise and aesthetic training, in other words
both Science and Art, though between these there is no

1 68 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

sharp boundary. The subjects taken should include, —
reading and writing, drawing, the elements of physical
science, of morals, of politics and of sociology ; also
English History (with incidental geography) taught in a
rational way.

As to the aesthetic side, using the English language as
an instrument : —

" If a man cannot get literary cuhure of the highest kind out
of his Bible, and Chaucer, and Shakespeare, and Milton, and
Hobbes, and Bishop Berkeley, to mention only a few of our
illustrious writers — I say, if he cannot get it out of those writers,
he cannot get it out of anything."

Pupils should also be taught to use English, *' with
precision, with force, and with art." Translations of
classical works might well be read. Music or painting
should be reserved for children of special faculty : —

" With that outfit, an Englishman, within the limits of English
life, is fitted to go anywhere, to occupy the highest positions, to
fill the highest offices of State, and to become distinguished in
practical pursuits, in science, or in art."

Latin and German are mentioned as desirable addi-
tional, should the limitations of time permit.

Beyond the essential and eminently desirable subjects,
let each take up some special line which appeals more
particularly to him.

The Medical Acts Commission, of which the object
was to suggest how best to adjust the numerous possible
qualifications, reported this year. It recommended
Divisional Boards for the three Kingdoms, which would
be concerned with the registration and final examination
of students, successful candidates for the latter to be
licensed by the General Medical Council, to be elected
by the Boards themselves. No provision made for the

MEDICAL ACTS COMMISSION 169

appointment of external examiners. Existing bodies
suffering pecuniary loss by the new arrangement to be
compensated.

Huxley signed the majority report, but also submitted
a separate report of his own, based on the practice in
Scotland, and proposing : —

"... that if any examining body satisfies the Medical
Council (or other State authority) that it requires full and
efficient instruction and examination in the three branches of
medicine, surgery, and midwifery ; and if it admits a certain
number of coadjutor examiners appointed by the State authority,
the certificate of that authority shall give admission to the
Medical Register " (Life, ii, p. 41).

The Bill, brought in (1883) with the view of carrying
out the ideas expressed in the Report, was defeated.

Two years later he explained his views in detail in
the opening Address of the London Hospital Medical
School on " The State and the Medical Profession "
(Coll. Essays, iii, p. 323). In this he objects to repressive
measures, and trades unionism in medicine, and thinks
* over the counter' practice ought to be permitted. The
State must legislate for death certificates, expert
witnesses, and government posts.

It is pointed out that forty years previously there were
no less than twenty-one ways of obtaining a medical
qualification, including license by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Improvements were effected by the Uni-
versity of London, and by the Medical Act of 1 858,
which instituted a Medical Registrar and a Medical
Council. The methods of the Scottish Universities,
especially Edinburgh, are described. At the time of the
address (1884) the licensing bodies had been reduced to
nineteen, by retirement of the Primate, and union of two
other authorities. Two or three black sheep remained.

I70 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

The main report of the Commission and Huxley's own
minority report are explained, and exception taken to the
idea of compensation contained in the former. This
would mean penalizing the competent bodies and per-
petually endowing the "black sheep" to an amount
" calculated on the maximum of their ill-gained profits."

The address advocated an extension of curriculum,
centralizing the instruction given in the earlier part of
the student's course, and the endowment of medical
research.

Three scientific memoirs bear date 1882 : —

1. " A Contribution to the Pathology of the Epidemic
known as the ' Salmon Disease ' " (Proc. Roy. Soc, xxxiii,
1882, pp. 381-9. Read March 2, 1882. Sci. Mem., iv,
XXX, p. 520).

2. " On Saprolegnia in relation to the Salmon Disease "
(Q. J. Micros. Sci., New Sen, xxii, 1882, pp. 311-33 :
extracted from the twenty-first Annual Report of H.M.'s
Inspectors of Sea Fisheries. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxii, p. 540).
— This and the preceding were the result of much patient
work carried out by Huxley in his capacity as a Fishery
Inspector. Saprolegnia is a parasitic fungus, a species
of which attacks the skin of the salmon, causing sore
patches.

3. ''On the Respiratory Organs of Apteryx" (Proc.
Zool. Soc, 1 882, pp. S^°-9- Read June 20, 1882. Sci.
Mem,, iv, xxxi, p. 529). — Apteryx is the scientific name
for the " kiwi," the smallest existing species of running
bird, indigenous to New Zealand.

1883.

The death of Spottiswoode in June of this year made
the first break in the x Club, which had existed for

PRESIDENT OF ROYAL SOCIETY 171

eighteen years, and left the Presidency of the Royal
Society vacant. Huxley, who had been Secretary for
nine years (1872-81), was by no means anxious for the
office, but his election took place almost as a matter of
course, and the many hearty congratulations which
followed gave even more pleasure than the honour con-
ferred. One characteristic reason for acceptance is given
in a letter (dated July 8) to the Warden of Merton
College, Oxford : —

"... I may say that I accepted the office inter alia for the
purpose of getting people to believe that such places may be pro-
perly held by people who have neither riches nor station — who
want nothing that statesmen can give — and who care for nothing
except upholding the dignity and the freedom of science "
(Life, ii, p. 52).

And, similarly, in a letter to Sir W. H. Flower (dated
July 7) :—

" I will not, if I can help it, allow the chair of the Royal
Society to become the appanage of rich men, or have the noble
old Society exploited by enterprising commercial gents who
make their profit out of the application of science " (loc. cit).

The amount of scientific research accomplished had
for some time been steadily diminishing, while other kinds
of work rapidly increased, until breaking strain was
reached, not, however, till the following year. A large
part of the interests and duties for 1883 are connected
with fisheries. A Friday Evening Discourse on " Oysters
and the Oyster Question " was delivered at the Royal
Institution on May 1 1 (published with additions in The
English Illustrated Magazine, 1883-4, PP* 47"55' 1^2-2 1.
Sci. Mem., iv, xxxiv, p. $12), and the winter lectures
to working-men (January 8-February 12) were on the
same topic.

172 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

The single scientific memoir for the year is an important
addition to our knowledge of fishes : — " Contributions to
Morphology. Ichthyopsida. — No. 2. On the Oviducts
of Osmerus [the smelt] \ with Remarks on the Relations
of the Teleostean with the Ganoid Fishes " (Proc. Zool.
Soc, 1883, pp. 132-9. Read March 20, 1883. Sci.
Mem., iv, xxxiii, p. 563).

The Fisheries Exhibition held in London during 1883
involved a large amount of work of various kinds, includ-
ing the '* Inaugural Address " on behalf of the Com-
missioners, in response to a welcome given by H.R.H.
the Prince of Wales (Fisheries Exhibition Literature, iv,
1885, pp. 3-22. Delivered June 18, 1883. Sci. Mem.,
Supply. Vol., V, p. 80). In this some of the views
regarding fish-supply already mentioned {cf. p. 160) are
reiterated.

A further mark of appreciation on the part of the
University of Cambridge took place this summer, for
Huxley delivered the Rede Lecture on June 12, taking
" Evolution, as illustrated by the Pearly Nautilus," for
his subject (Nature, xxviii, 1883, pp. 187-9. Sci. Mem.,
Supply. Vol., IV, p. 6^). To one familiar with his
appearance and manner only four years previously the
marked ageing and comparative feebleness were painfully
apparent. Later in the summer, however (Life, ii, p. 58),
his health is said to have been unusually good, giving
no hint of the complete breakdown so soon to take
place.

An amusing incident took place at Cambridge when
Huxley was up for the Rede Lecture, in connection with
the conferring of honorary degrees upon a large number
of celebrities, including Matthew Arnold, Sir Richard
Temple, and Lubbock. Huxley, enveloped in his red
gown, sat near the front with the other doctors. There

HUXLEY AT CAMBRIDGE 173

had recently been a skirmish of pens between him and
Arnold, and when the latter advanced to stand out the
usual oration, an irreverent undergraduate shouted from
the gallery — "Go and shake hands with Huxley!"
The joke was small, but Huxley's semi-amused, semi-
sarcastic expression was great.

CHAPTER XVI

BREAKDOWN AND RETIREMENT CRITICAL

THEOLOGY [l 884-86].

Dyspepsia and hypochondria during 1884 made life a
burden, though the correspondence of this time contains
many flashes of humour. Among other annoyances,
Huxley had to submit to the extraction of all his remaining
teeth, and this greatly depressed him, for his zoological
studies had led to the conviction that the end of the
dentition meant the end of the animal.

Some improvement was effected by a trip to Cornwall
and Wales in the second half of the summer, but at
the end of this he was imperatively ordered to go abroad
for some months, Italy being chosen as the country to
be visited. Unfortunately, family trouble added to the
burden of physical disability, for while arrangements
were being made for the marriage of his third daughter,
his second one (Mrs. Collier) was prostrated with serious
illness, which left little hope of ultimate recovery.

Some of the impressions of Italy are interesting.
Thus in a letter written from Lugano to Sir Michael
Foster : —

" Venice itself just suited me. I chartered a capital gondolier,
and spent most of my time exploring the Lagoons. Especially
I paid a daily visit to the Lido, and filled my lungs with the sea
air, and rejoiced in the absence of stinks. For Venice is like
her population (at least the male part of it), handsome but
odorous. Did you notice how handsome the young men are
and how little beauty there is among the women ? . . . Verona

174

IMPRESSIONS OF ITALY 175

delighted me more than anything I have seen. . . ." (Life, ii,
p. 81).

And in a letter from Naples to Sir John Evans (dated
December 10) : —

*' In spite of snow on the ground we had three or four days
at Ravenna — which is the most interesting deadly lively sepulchre
of a place I was ever in in my life. The evolution of modern
from ancient art is all there in a nutshell. . . ." (Life, ii,
p. 85).

Of Rome, to a daughter (January II, 1885) : —

" Since the time of Constantine there has been nothing but
tawdry rubbish in the shape of architecture — the hopeless bad
taste of the Papists is a source of continual gratification to me as
a good Protestant (and something more). . . . But down to
the time of Constantine, Rome is endlessly interesting, and if I
were well I should like to spend some months in exploring it.
As it is, I do very little, though I have contrived to pick, up all
I want to know about Pagan Rome and the Catacombs, which
last are my especial weakness " (Life, ii, p. 88).

And again, to his eldest son (January 20, 1885): —

" I need hardly tell you that I find Rome wonderfully interest-
ing, and the attraction increases the longer one stays. 1 am
obliged to take care of myself and do but little in the way of
sight-seeing, but by directing one's attention to particular objects
one can learn a great deal without much trouble. I begin to
understand Old Rome pretty well, and I am quite learned in the
Catacombs, which suit me, as a kind of Christian fossils out of
which one can reconstruct the body of the primitive Church.
She was a simple maiden enough and vastly more attractive than
the bedizened old harridan of the modern Papacy, so smothered
under the old clothes of Paganism which she has been appro-
priating for the last fifteen centuries that Jesus of Nazareth
would not know her if he met her " (Life, ii, p. 91).

In the last quotation we find the beginning of a new
subject, critical theology, to which, along with philo-

176 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

sophy and sociology Huxley devoted most of his last ten
years of life. Dissection, and particularly microscopic
work, involved such physical discomfort that they had to
be practically abandoned.

1885.

Despite his precarious health, he took a keen interest
in current events, and was deeply grieved to hear of the
death of General Gordon, of whom he thus speaks in a
letter to Sir John Donnelly (dated February 16): —

" Poor fellow ! I wonder if he has entered upon the 'larger
sphere of action ' which he told me was reserved for him in case
of such a trifling accident as death. Of all the people whom I
have met with in my life, he and Darwin are the two in whom
I have found something bigger than ordinary humanity — an
unequalled simplicity and directness of purpose — a sublime
unselfishness.

" Horrible as it is to us, I imagine that the manner of his
death was not unwelcome to himself. Better wear out than rust
out, and better break than wear out. The pity is that he could
not know the feeling of his countrymen about him.

" I shall be curious to see what defence the superingenious
Premier has to offer for himself in Parliament. I suppose, as
usual, the question will drift into a brutal party fight, when the
furious imbecility of the Tories will lead them to spoil their
case. That is where we are ; on the one side, timid imbecility
' waiting for instructions from the constituencies ' ; furious im-
becility on the other, looking out for party advantage. Oh !
for a few months of WiUiam Pitt " (Life, ii, pp. 94-5).

The Italian visit was extended into late spring,
but the result was only a modified success. Venice,
Rome, Naples and Florence had all proved more or less
unsatisfactory ; most benefit being apparently derived at
Siena, allusion to which is made in a letter to his
youngest daughter (dated February 23, 1885) : —

RETIREMENT 177

" The change here is wonderfully to the good. We are
perched more than a thousand feet above the sea, looking over
the Tuscan hills for twenty or thirty miles every way. It is
warm enough to sit with the window wide open and yet the air
is purer and more bracing than in any place we have visited. . , .
Then there is one of the most wonderful cathedrals to be seen
in all North Italy — free from all gaudy linery and atrocious bad
taste which have afflicted me all over South Italy. The town
is the quaintest place imaginable — built of narrow streets on
several steep hills to start with, and then apparently stirred up
with a poker to prevent monotony of effect " (Life, ii, p. 96).

Huxley was back in England on April 8, and being
ordered by Sir Andrew Clark to give up all serious
work, resigned his Professorship and Fishery Inspector-
ship in May, immediately after his sixtieth birthday. At
this age he had been wont to declare men of science
ought to be strangled ! It was, however, arranged that
he should retain the title of Professor of Biology, and
asked to undertake some general superintendence at the
Royal College of Science, in the capacity of Honorary
Dean. The work of the chair was divided into botanical
and zoological moieties, entrusted to two assistant Pro-
fessors, D. W. Scott and G. B. Howes. The untiring
devotion of the latter, first as Demonstrator, and later as
Deputy Professor during Huxley's illness, had prevented
any serious hitches in the course for which the latter was
responsible as Professor.

Huxley's retiring allowances, after thirty-one years'
Government service, were fixed at ^^1200 per annum,
and to this a Civil List Pension of ;^3oo was added
later in the year, on the initiative of Lord Iddesleigh.
Retirement, therefore, meant no loss of official income.

In reply (November 24, 1885) to Lord Iddesleigh's
letter, the Pension was accepted in the following terms : —

" With respect to your Lordship's offer to submit my name
M

178 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

to Her Majesty for a Civil List Pension, I can but accept a
proposal which is in itself an honour, and which is rendered
extremely gratifying to me by the great kindness of the expres-
sions in which you have been pleased to embody it" (Lite, ii,
p. io8).

An even bigger wrench was involved in the resigna-
tion of the Presidency of the Royal Society on November
30, the reasons for the step being given as follows in his
last Presidential address : —

" I am happy to say that I have good reason to believe that,
with prolonged rest — by which I do not mean idleness, but
release from distraction and complete freedom from those lethal
agencies which are commonly known as the pleasures of society
— I may yet regain so much strength as is compatible with
advancing years. But in order to do so, I must, for a long time
yet, be content to lead a more or less anchoretic life. Now it
is not fitting that your President should be a hermit, and it
becomes me, who have received so much kindness and considera-
tion from the Society, to be particularly careful that no sense of
personal gratification should delude me into holding the office of
its representative one moment after reason and conscience have
pointed out my incapacity to discharge the serious duties which
devolve upon the President, with some approach to efficiency.

" I beg leave, therefore, with much gratitude for the crowning
honour of my life which you have conferred upon me, to be per-
mitted to vacate the chair of the Society as soon as the business
of this meeting is at an end " (Life, ii, p. 107).

Two Other events for 1885 still require mention. One,
in May, was the conferment of the degree of D.C.L.
{honoris causa) by the University of Oxford. In answer-
ing the letter inviting him to accept this honour, he
wrote : —

" It will be a sort of apotheosis coincident with my official
death, which is imminent. In fact, I am dead already, only the
Treasury Charon has not yet settled the conditions upon which
I am to be ferried over to the other side " (Life, ii, p. 1 10).

GLADSTONE CONTROVERSY 179

The second event was the unveiHng of the Darwin
statue (June 9), and its formal presentation to the
Trustees of the British Museum {cf. p. 164).

A gradual improvement of health followed resignation,
and the early stage of a somewhat acrimonious contro-
versy with Mr. Gladstone towards the end of the year
seems to have proved a very effective pick-me-up. In
the November number of the Nineteenth Century Glad-
stone in his article " The Dawn of Creation and
Worship," had traversed the views expressed by Dr.
Reville in his Prolegomena to the History oj Religions, and
tried to show that the order of creation given in the first
chapter of Genesis is in harmony with the conclusions of
science.

Huxley's reply appeared in the December number of
the same periodical, and was entitled " The Interpreters
of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature" (Coll. Essays,
iv, p. 139). It sets forth in detail the untenability of
Gladstone's position, and concludes with remarks on the
general question of Science versus Religion : —

" The antagonism between science and religion, about which
we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitious — fabri-
cated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who
confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion ;
and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who
forget that science takes for its province only that which is
susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension ; and that, outside
the boundaries of that province, they must be content with
imagination, with hope, and with ignorance. . . .

" The antagonism of science is not to religion, but to the
heathen survivals and the bad philosophy under which religion
herself is often well-nigh crushed. And, for my part, I trust
that this antagonism will never cease ; but that, to the end of
time, true science will continue to fulfil one of her most beneficent
functions, that of relieving men from the burden of false science
which is imposed upon them in the name of religion."

i8o THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

The stimulating etfcct of Gladstone's article will be
gathered from the following extract taken from a letter
to Lord Farrer (dated December 6, 1885) :—

" From a scientilic point of view Gladstone's article was un-
doubtedly not worth powder and shot. But, on personal grounds,
the perusal of it sent me blaspheming about the house with the
iirst healthy expression of wrath known for a couple of years —
to my wife's great alarm — and I should have 'busted up' if I
had not given vent to my indignation ; and secondly, all ortho-
doxy was gloating over the slap in the face which the G.O.M.
had administered to science in the person of Reville " (Life,
ii, p. 115).

Mr. Gladstone's reply — "Proem to Genesis" — ap-
peared in the January (1886) number of the Nineteenth
Century, and Huxley's rejoinder — " Mr. Gladstone and
Genesis" — in that for February (Coll. Essays, iv, p. 164).
This is sufficiently scathing, although it was subjected to
a good deal of pruning before publication, at the request
of the editor. The passage about reptiles, the incon-
veniently early geological appearance of which does not
harmonize with the "order" in Genesis, is terribly
sarcastic : —

" Still, the wretched creatures stand there, importunately de-
manding notice ; and, however different may be the practice in
that contentious atmosphere with which Mr. Gladstone expresses
and laments his familiarity, in the atmosphere of science it really
is of no avail whatever to shut one's eyes to facts, or to try to
bury them out of sight under a tumulus of rhetoric. That is my
experience of the ' Elysian regions of Science,' wherein it is a
pleasure to me to think that a man of Mr. Gladstone's intimate
knowledge of English life, during the last quarter of a century,
believes my philosophic existence to have been rounded off in
unbroken equanimity."

And apropos of the difference between a lecture and a

sermon : —

" I note, incidentally, that Mr. Gladstone appears to consider

VISIT TO SWITZERLAND i8i

the differentia between a lecture and a sermon is, that the former,
so far as it deals with matters of fact, may be taken seriously, as
meaning exactly what it says, while a sermon may not. I have
quite enough on my hands without taking up the cudgels for the
clergy, who will probably find Mr, Gladstone's definition un-
flattering."

The controversy above alluded to excited a very
widespread interest, as sufficiently attested by a great
variety of letters that made their appearance in the Times.
The clerical party, many years previously, had done
their best to discredit the theory of evolution, and now
having plenty of time for the congenial task, Huxley
vigorously assaulted the enemy's camp.

1886.

More than half this year was marred by constantly
recurring attacks of illness, but temporary rejuvenescence
was effected by an August spent at Arolla (canton
Valais), 6000 feet above the sea, while both earlier and
later in the year Ilkley proved remarkably beneficial.
One result of the improvement effected by the Swiss
mountain air was a return to scientific research, this time
of botanical nature, a careful study being made of the
gentians.

Apart from this and the literary work to be presently
mentioned, retirement by no means meant rusting out : —

" Examinations — for the last time, however — the meetings of
the Eton Governing body, the business of the Science Schools,
the Senate of the London University, the Marine Biological
Association, the Council of the Royal Society, and a round
dozen of subsidiary committees, all claimed his attention. Even
when driven out of town by his bad health he would come up
for a few days at a time to attend necessary meetings" (Life, ii,
p. 121).

1 82 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Huxley was President of the Marine Biological As-
sociation, which early in the year was considering the
advisability of trying to induce the Government to add a
scientific adviser to the Board of Fisheries. He opposed
the step, being of opinion it would lead to administrative
difficulties.

In his capacity as a Governor of Eton he had to take
part in the election of a new head, and some of his ideas
about what ought to be done are embodied in a letter to
his eldest son (dated July 6) : —

'* The whole system of paying the Eton masters by the profits
of the boarding-houses they keep is detestable to my mind, but
any attempt to alter it would be fatal. ... I look to the new
appointment with great anxiety. It will make or mar Eton.
If the new Headmaster has the capacity to grasp the fact that the
world has altered a good deal since the Eton system was in-
vented, and if he has the sense to adapt Eton to the new state
of things, without letting go that which was good in the old
system, Eton may become the finest public school in the country.
If on the contrary he is merely a vigorous representative of the
old system pure and simple, the school will go to the dogs "
(Life, ii, pp. 134-5).

As a strong Unionist, Huxley was of course intensely
interested in the Home Rule question which was
agitating the country at this time, and his views are
expressed in a letter to Mr. Albert Grey, M.P. (dated
March 21, 1886), published in the Times for April 13,
under somewhat singular circumstances. It appears that
the Unionist case had not been adequately stated in
America, and contributions to the Nationalist funds had
been coming over the water somewhat more freely than
the other party relished. Mr. Grey, therefore, arranged
to cable to an American newspaper syndicate the opinions
of leading Unionists, and from America came the sug-
gestion that the series should begin with Huxley. It

OPPOSITION TO HOME RULE 183

would be difficult to find a more direct proof than this
of the authority which attached in the States to his
views.

In the letter under discussion it will be seen that he
declined to make the statement desired, but he afterwards
consented to publication of the letter itself : —

" I am as much opposed to the Home Rule Scheme as any
one can possibly be, and if I were a political man I would fight
against it as long as I had any breath left in me ; but I have
carefully kept out of the political field all my life, and it is too
late for me now to think of entering it.

" Anxious watching of the course of affairs for many years
past has persuaded me that nothing short of some sharp and
sweeping national misfortune will convince the majority of our
countrymen that government by average opinion is merely a cir-
cuitous method of going to the devil ; and that those who profess
to lead but in fact slavishly follow this average opinion, are
simply the fastest runners and the loudest squeakers of the herd,
which is rushing blindly down to its destruction.

" It is the electorate, and especially the Liberal electorate,
which is responsible for the present state of things. It has no
political education. It knows well enough that two and two
won't make five in a ledger, and that sentimental stealing in
private life is not to be tolerated ; but it has not been taught the
great lesson in history that there are like verities in national life,
and hence it easily falls a prey to any clever and copious fallacy-
monger who appeals to its great heart instead of reminding it of
its weak head.

" Politicians have gone on flattering and cajoling this chaos of
political incompetence until the just penalty of believing their own
fictions has befallen them, and the average Member of Parliament
is conscientiously convinced that it is his duty, not to act for his
constituents to the best of his judgment, but to do exactly what
they, or rather the small minority which drives them, tells him
to do.

" Have we a real statesman, a man of the calibre of Pitt or
Burke, to say nothing of Strafford or Pym, who will stand
up and tell his countrymen that this disruption of the union is
nothing but a cowardly wickedness — an act had in itself, fraught

1 84 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

with immeasurable evil — especially to the people of Ireland ; and
that if it cost his political existence, or his head, for that matter,
he is prepared to take any and every honest man's means of pre-
venting the mischief?

" I see no sign of any. And if such a man should come to
the front, what chance is there of his receiving loyal and con-
tinuous support from a majority of the House of Commons ? I
see no sign of any.

" There was a time when the political madness of one party
was sure to be checked by the sanity, or at any rate the jealousy,
of the other. At the last election I should have voted for the
Conservatives (for the first time in my life), had it not been for
Lord Randolph Churchill ; but I thought that by thus jumping
out of the Gladstonian frying-pan into the Churchillian fire, I
should not mend matters, so I abstained altogether.

" Mr. Parnell has great qualities. For the first time the Irish
malcontents have a leader who is not eloquent, but who is honest ;
who knows what he wants and faces the risks involved in getting
it. Our poor Right Honourable Rhetoricians are no match for
this man who understands realities. I believe also that Mr.
Parnell's success will destroy the English politicians who permit
themselves to be his instruments, as soon as bitter experience of
the consequences has brought Englishmen and Scotchmen (and
I will add Irishmen) to their senses.

" I suppose one ought not to be sorry for that result, but there
are men among them over whose fall all will lament" (Times,
loc. cit. Life, ii, pp. 124-6).

Besides the second Genesis paper, the year's work
included an article for an American periodical (The
Youth's Companion), and two important essays. The
article, entitled ''From the Hut to the Pantheon" is a
study in architectural evolution, the point of departure
being the prehistoric beehive hut. Since one of the two
essays, " The Evolution of Theology : an Anthropo-
logical Study," which appeared in the Nineteenth Century
for March and April 1886, and the counterblasts to
Gladstone, made up an important part of the fourth
volume of the Collected Essays (" Science and Hebrew

SCIENCE & HEBREW TRADITION 185

Tradition"), it may be well first of all to deal with
the introduction to this, notwithstanding it was written
some years subsequently, being dated October 9,
1893.

The purpose of this introduction is to advance the
claims of the higher criticism to serious consideration, as
against the doctrine of biblical infallibility : —

" It is becoming, if it has not become, impossible for men of
clear intellect and adequate instruction to believe, and it has
ceased, or is ceasing, to be possible for such men honestly to say
they believe, that the universe came into being in the fashion de-
scribed in the first chapter of Genesis ; or to accept, as a literal
truth, the story of the making of woman,with the account of the
catastrophe which followed hard upon it, in the second chapter ;
or to admit that the earth was repeopled with terrestrial in-
habitants by migration from Armenia or Kurdistan, little more
than 4000 years ago, which is implied in the eighth chapter ; or,
finally, to shape their conduct in accordance with the conviction
that the world is haunted by innumerable demons, who take
possession of men and may be driven out of them by exorcistic
adjurations, which pervades the Gospels.

" Nevertheless, if there is any justification for the dogma of
plenary inspiration, the damnatory prodigality of even the
Athanasian Creed is still too sparing. ' Whosoever will be
saved,' must believe, not only all these things, but a great many
others of equal repugnancy to common sense and everyday
knowledge. . . .

" For those who look upon ignorance as one of the chief
sources of evil ; and hold veracity, not merely in act, but in
thought, to be the one condition of true progress, whether moral
or intellectual, it is clear that the biblical idol must go the way
of all other idols. Of infallibility, in all shapes, lay or clerical,
it is needful to iterate with more than Catonic pertinacity, Delenda
estr

The Preface also includes a vigorous attack upon those
who were responsible for the Helps to the Study of the
Bible appended to the Oxford Bible for Teachers (new

1 86 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

edition, 1 893), and which adheres to the old views in
regard to the authorship of the Pentateuch : —

" There is no living biblical scholar who can ignore authorities
of the rank of Reuss and Wellhausen, of Robertson Smith, and
Kuenen. without gross presumption ; I might even say without
raising a serious doubt of his scientific integrity. . . .

" If I were to publish ' Helps to the Study of Zoology,' for
popular use, in which the progress of science in the last fifty
years was ignored, and every recent authority passed over in
silence, I am afraid, and indeed hope, that I should get into great
trouble. But to be sure I should be judged by mere lay standards
of right and wrong."

The essay itself (" Evolution of Theology," Coll.
Essays, iv, p. 287) is a study in anthropology, for which
the Old Testament furnishes the material : —

" In this venerable record of ancient life, miscalled a book,
when it is really a library comparable to a selection of works
from English literature between the times of Beda and those of
Milton, we have the stratified deposits (often confused and even
with their natural order inverted) left by the stream of the
intellectual and moral life of Israel during many centuries. And,
embedded in these strata, there are numerous remains of forms of
thought which once lived, and which, though often unfortunately
mere fragments, are of priceless value to the anthropologist.
Our task is to rescue these from their relatively unimportant
surroundings, and by careful comparison with existing forms of
theology, to make the dead world which they record live again.
In other words, our problem is palseontological, and the method
piursued must be the same as that employed in dealing with other
fossil remains."

Part of the concluding paragraph runs as follows : —

" It is ray conviction that, with the spread of true scientific
culture, whatever may be the medium, historical, philological,
philosophical, or physical, through which that culture is conveyed,
and with its necessary concomitant, a constant elevation of the
standard of veracity, the end of the evolution of theology will be

SCIENCE AND MORALS 187

like its beginning — it will cease to have any relation to ethics.
I suppose that, so long as the human mind exists, it will not
escape its deep-seated instinct to personify its intellectual concep-
tions. . . . So, it may be, that the majority of mankind may
find the practice of morality made easier by the use of theological
symbols. And unless these are converted from symbols into
idols, I do not see that science has anything to say to the practice,
except to give an occasional warning of its dangers. But, when
such symbols are dealt with as real existences, I think the highest
duty which is laid upon men of science is to show that these
dogmatic idols have no greater value than the fabrications
of men's hands, the stocks and the stones, which they have
replaced."

The second essay " Science and Morals" (Coll. Essays,
ix, p. 117) appeared in the Fortnightly Review for Nov-
ember, by way of reply to Mr. W. S. Lilly, who
in a previous contribution to that periodical, entitled
" Materialism and Morality," impugned the views of
W. K. Clifford, Herbert Spencer and Huxley, on account
of their supposedly materialistic character.

Huxley's article, as usual, is not only incisive, but in-
cludes some fine writing. The relation of Science, the
"Cinderella" sister of Philosophy and Theology, to
Morals, is admirably summed up in the last two para-
graphs : —

" Cinderella is modestly conscious of her ignorance of these
high matters. She lights the fire, sweeps the house, and provides
the dinner ; and is rewarded by being told that she is a base
creature, devoted to low and material interests. But in her
garret she has fairy visions out of the ken of the pair of shrews
who are quarrelling downstairs. She sees the order which per-
vades the seeming disorder of the world ; the great drama of
evolution, with its full share of pity and terror, but also with
abundant goodness and beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes ;
and she learns, in her heart ot hearts, the lesson, that the founda-
tion of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying ;
to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no

1 88 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things
beyond the possibility of knowledge.

" She knows that the safety of morality lies neither in the
adoption of this or that philosophical speculation, or this or that
theological creed, but in a real and living belief in that fixed
order of nature which sends social disorganization upon the track
of immorality, as surely as it sends physical disease after physical
trespasses. And of that firm and lively faith it is her high
mission to be the priestess."

CHAPTER XVII

TECHNICAL EDUCATION CONTROVERSIAL WRITINGS

[1887].

As during the previous year, ill health interfered with
work, and this time a new ailment, pleurisy, made its
appearance. But, as before, Swiss air proved itself a
sovereign remedy, and two months at Arolla worked
wonders. Before the end of the year, however, bereave-
ment once more laid a heavy hand upon him, for on
November 19 his second daughter Marian (Mrs. Collier)
was rapidly carried off by pneumonia. Though three
years' illness preceded this (cf. p. 1 74), so sudden an end-
ing was unexpected.

A large part of the interest of the year centres around
technical education, the immediate occasion being the
proposals for establishing an Imperial Institute as a
Jubilee Memorial. Speaking at the Mansion House
Meeting on January 12, Huxley alluded to the original
antagonism between pure science and " practical " men,
and then proceeded to sketch the gradual alteration which
had taken place in this state of things : —

"... but within the last thirty years, more particularly, that
state of things had entirely changed. There began in the first
place a slight flirtation between science and industry, and that
flirtation had grown into an intimacy, he might almost say court-
ship, until those who watched the signs of the times saw that it
was high time that the young people married and set up an
establishment for themselves. This great scheme, from his
point of view, was the public and ceremonial marriage of science

189

I90 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

and industry" (Nature, xxxiii, 1887, p. 265. Life, ii,
pp. 1 50-1).

Part of a letter contributed to the Times (January 27)
was published by the Committee as admirably expressing
the purpose the Institute was meant to fulfil : —

" That with which I did intend to express my strong sympathy,
was the intention which I thought I discerned to establish some-
thing which should play the same part in regard to the advance-
ment of industrial knowledge which has been played in regard
to science and learning in general, in these realms, by the Royal
Society and the universities. ... I pictured the Imperial
Institute to myself as a house of call for all those who are con-
cerned in the advancement of industry ; as a place in which the
home-keeping industrial could find out all he wants to know
about colonial industry and the colonist about home industry ; as
a sort of neutral ground on which the capitalist and the artizan
would be equally welcome ; as a centre of intercommunication
in which they might enter into friendly discussion of the
problems at issue between them, and, perchance, arrive at a
friendly solution of them. I imagined it a place in which the
fullest stores of industrial knowledge would be made accessible
to the public ; in which the higher questions of commerce and
industry would be systematically studied and elucidated ; and
where, as in an industrial university, the whole technical educa-
tion of the country might find its centre and crown. If I
earnestly desire to see such an institution created, it is not because
I think that or anything else will put an end to pauperism and
want — as somebody has absurdly suggested — but because I
believe it will supply a foundation for that scientific organization
of our industries which the changed conditions of the times
render indispensable to their prosperity. I do not think I am
far wrong in assuming that we are entering, indeed, have already
entered, upon the most serious struggle for existence to which
this country has ever been committed. The later years of the
century promise to see us embarked in an industrial war of far
more serious import than the military wars of its opening years.
On the east, the most systematically-instructed and best-informed
people in Europe are our competitors ; on the west, an energetic
offshoot of our own stock, grown bigger than its parent, enters upon

TECHNICAL EDUCATION 191

the struggle, possessed of natural resources to which we can make
no pretension, and with every prospect of soon possessing that
cheap labour by which they may be efFectuallv utilized. Many
circumstances tend to justify the hope that we may hold our own
if we are careful to ' organize victory.' But to those who reflect
seriously on the prospects of the population of Lancashire and
Yorkshire — should the time ever arrive when the goods which are
produced by their labour and their skill are to be had cheaper
elsewhere — to those who remember the cotton famine and reflect
how much worse a customer famine would be, the situation
appears very grave."

An important lecture in the form of an " Address on
Behalf of the National Association for the Promotion of
Technical Education," was delivered at Manchester on
November 29 (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 427). The purpose of
the Association is stated as " the development of the
industrial productivity of the country to the uttermost
limits consistent with social welfare." Elementary
education requires modification, for it should include
some training of the faculty of observation. Drawing
is strongly advocated : —

*' I do not mean artistic drawing ; I mean figuring natural
objects : making plans and sections, approaching geometrical
rather than artistic drawing. . . . The child who has been
taught to make an accurate elevation, plan and section of a pint
pot has had an admirable training in accuracy of eye and hand.
... I am glad to say that in Eton, a school of whose governing
body I have the honour of being a member, we, some years ago,
made drawing imperative on the whole school."

The question of how best to develop technical skill is
considered. The work of the Science and Art Depart-
ment is spoken of and defended. Trade schools are too
expensive and not accessible to wage-earners. Schools
attached to factories are good, but only of partial applica-
tion. Evening Classes have a wider scope, and should

192 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

be supported both by private effort and local taxation.
Huxley states that he supported the pringples involved
in the Bill for Technical Education abandoned in 1886.
I'his proposed to provide some authority which should
sanction or veto local schemes.

The question of supply of teachers is treated in detail.
A special system is required to turn out teachers of
science or technology. The present system is quite in-
adequate for the purpose from the pupil-teacher stage
upwards : —

"When does the unhappy pupil-teacher, or over-drilled
student of a training college, find any time to think ? I am sure
that if I were in their place I could not."

An eye must be kept on measures necessary for pre-
serving the entire social organism in a sound and stable
condition. Allusion is made to the keen and necessary
competition between different nations : —

" Our sole chance of succeeding in a competition, which must
continually become more and more severe, is that our people
should not only have the knowledge and the skill which are
required, but that they should have the will and the energy and
the honesty, without which neither knowledge ror skill can be
of any permanent avail."

Any social condition involving misery, physical weak-
ness, and degradation of the worker is bound to bring
about a collapse. The question of cheapness of labour
is admitted to be a difficult problem, and finally an
appeal is made that in promoting industrial education an
attempt shall be made to secure, —

"... that the conditions of industrial life remain those in which
the physical energies of the population may be maintained at a
proper level ; in which their moral state may be cared for ; in
which there may be some rays of hope and pleasure in their lives ;

SCIENCE & CHRISTIAN TRADITION 193

and in which the sole prospect of a life of labour may not be an
old age of penury."

The address was a marked success, and in writing to
Sir Michael Foster (on December i) Huxley says : —

" Manchester has gone solid for technical education, and if the
idiotic London papers, instead of giving half a dozen lines of my
speech, had mentioned the solid contributions to the work
announced at the meeting, they would have enabled you to under-
stand its importance" (Life, ii, p. 18 1).

This year too we have further controversial matters
with which to deal. Canon Liddon preached a sermon
in which he endeavoured to explain miracles as ex-
emplifying the suspension of lower natural laws by the
intervention of higher ones. This called forth the article on
" Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism " (Nineteenth
Century, February 1887. Coll. Essays, v, p. 59). This
is the first of a series of essays afterwards collected
together in the volume on Science and Christian Tradi-
tion. Before dealing with it, a few quotations from the
Preface (dated December 4, 1B93) '^^Y ^^ given to make
Huxley's general position clear.

After quoting one of Strauss's later utterances, in
which he justifies the work of his life, Huxley enters a
vigorous protest against the belief expressed in orthodox
quarters that his own attitude was actively anti-
Christian : —

" I too have reached the term at which the still, small voice,
more audible than any other to the dulled ear of age, makes its
demand ; and I have found that it is of no sort of use to try to
cook, the accounts rendered. Nevertheless, I distinctly decline
to admit some of the items charged ; more particularly that of
having ' gone out of my way ' to attack the Bible ; and I as stead-
fastly deny that ' hatred of Christianity ' is a feeling with which
I have any acquaintance. There are very few things which I
N

194 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

find it permissible to iiatc ; and though, it may be, that some of
tlie organizations, which arrogate to themselves the Christian
name, have richly earned a place in the category of hateful
things, that ought to have nothing to do with one's estimation of
the religion which they have perverted and disfigured out of all
likeness to the original ... it was the dominant ecclesiasticism
of my early days, which, as I believe, without any warrant from
the Bible itself, thrust the book in my way."

Then follow justifications of the controversy on the
Mosaic record, and that on the miracle of the herd of
swine which followed later : the agnostic attitude is
defended. The Preface closes thus : —

*' Those who are of the opinion that the historical realities at
the root of Christianity lie beyond the jurisdiction of science,
need not be considered. Those who are convinced that the
evidence is, and must always remain, insufficient to support any
definite conclusion, are justified in ignoring the subject. They
must be content to put up with that reproach of being mere
destroyers, of which Strauss speaks. They may say that there
are so many problems which are and must remain insoluble that
the ' burden of the mystery ' ' ot all this unintelligible world ' is
not appreciably affected by one more or less.

" For myself, I must confess that the problem of the origin
of such very remarkable historical phenomena as the doctrines,
and the social organization, which, in their broad features, certainly
existed, and were in a state of rapid development, within a
hundred years of the crucifixion of Jesus ; and which have
steadily prevailed against all rivals, among the most intelligent
and civilized nations in the world ever since, is, and always has
been, profoundly interesting ; and, considering how recently the
really scientific study of that problem, and how great the
progress made during the last half century in supplying the
conditions for a positive solution of the problem, I cannot doubt
that the attainment of such a solution is a mere question of time.

" I am well aware that it has lain far beyond my powers to
take any share in this great undertaking. All that I can hope
is to have done somewhat towards ' the preparation of those who
have ceased to be contented with the old and find no satisfaction
in half measures ' : perhaps, also, something towards the lessening

LAWS OF NATURE 195

of that great proportion of my countrymen, whose eminent char-
acteristic it is that they find 'full satisfaction in half measures.' "

" Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism " protests
against the misuse of scientific terms, especially the term
" law." As to the proper topic of the essay : —

" It is the use of the word ' law ' as if it denoted a thing — as
if a ' law of nature,' as science understands it, were a being
endowed with certain powers, in virtue of which the phenomena
expressed by that law are brought about. The preacher asks,
' Might not there be a suspension of a lower law by the inter-
vention of a higher ? ' He tells us that every time we lift our
arms we defy the law of gravitation. He asks whether some
day certain ' royal and ultimate laws ' may not come and ' wreck '
those laws which are at present, it v/ould appear, acting as
nature's police. It is evident, from these expressions, that
' laws,' in the mind of the preacher, are entities having an
objective exiiitence in a graduated hierarchy. And it would
appear that the 'royal laws' are by no means to be regarded as
constitutional royalties : at any moment, they may, like Eastern
despots, descend in wrath among the middle-class and plebeian
laws, v/hich have hitherto done the drudgery of the world's
work, and, to use phraseology not unknown in our seats of
learning — ' make hay ' of their belongings. Or perhaps a still
more familiar analogy has suggested this singular theory ; and it
is thought that high laws may 'suspend' low laws, as a bishop
may suspend a curate.

" Far be it from me to controvert these views, if any one likes
to hold them. All I wish to remark is that such a conception
of the nature of ' laws ' has nothing to do with modern science.
It is scholastic realism — realism as intense and unmitigated as
that of Scotus Erigenus a thousand years ago. The essence of
such realism is that it maintains the objective existence of
universals, or, as we call them nowadays, general propositions."

To this essay the Duke of Argyll attempted a reply,
bearing the somewhat personal heading, " Professor
Huxley on Canon Liddon" (Nineteenth Century, March
1887), rebuking Huxley for attacking a church dignitary,

196 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

and raising a variety of matters in different branches
of science. There were also some hyperbolic remarks
about a scientific " Reign of Terror," against which a
revolt was to take place.

Huxley's rejoinder "Science and Pseudo-Science"
(Nineteenth Century, April 1887. Coll. Essays, v, p. 90)
demolishes his opponent's arguments to some purpose,
deals with the subjects advanced, reviews the chapter
on "Law" in the Duke's book, The Reign oj Law
(" . . . from my point of view, a sort of ' summa' of
pseudo-scientific philosophy"), and dismisses with a jest
the idea of a " Reign of Terror."

The Duke, however, adventured a further attack, " A
Great Lesson" (Nineteenth Century, September 1887), in
which he tried to prove the existence of a scientific reign
of terror by alluding to Bathybius as a mistake arising
from an attempt to bolster up Darwinism, and asserting
that Dr. (now Sir John) Murray's theory of coral reefs
had been suppressed for some time lest it should injure
Darwin's reputation by disproving some of his specula-
tions on the same subject to be invalid.

Huxley's reply formed part of an article on " Science
and the Bishops " (Nineteenth Century, November
1887), afterwards republished with the new title of
"An Episcopal Trilogy" (Coll. Essays, v, p. 126). In
the meantime, it should be added, another bishop had
introduced the coral-reef myth into a sermon, which had
been sent to Huxley by "an unknown correspondent."
This fact indeed is the occasion of a very humorous
passage in the " Trilogy " : —

" There seems to be an impression abroad — I do not desire
to give any countenance to it — that I am fond of reading
sermons. From time to time, unknown correspondents — some
apparently animated by the charitable desire to promote my

AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY 197

conversion, and others unmistakably anxious to spur me to the
expression of wrathful antagonism — favour me with reports or
copies of such productions."

The Duke's assertions are shown in detail to be perfectly
groundless, and a candid opinion given of his scientific
accuracy : —

" In the course of his doubtless well-meant admonitions, the
Duke of Argyll commits himself to a greater number of state-
ments which are demonstrably inaccurate, and which any one
who ventured to write upon the subject ought to have known to
be incorrect, than I have ever seen gathered together in so small
a space. . . . The most considerable difference I note among
men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readi-
ness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses. The Duke of
Argyll has now a splendid opportunity for proving to the world
in which of these categories it is hereafter to rank him."

This ended Huxley's part in this particular controversy,
for in a subsequent article the Duke failed to take advan-
tage of the "splendid opportunity" offered. Turning
now to the first part of the " Trilogy," we find this
essay owes its name to the fact that at the British
Association in Manchester (1887) the Bishops of Carlisle,
Bedford and Manchester all gave sermons in which the
claims of science were treated with conspicuous fair-
ness : —

'* It is impossible to read the discourses of the three prelates
without being impressed by the knowledge which they display,
and by the spirit of equity, I might say of generosity, towards
science which pervades them. There is no trace of that tacit
or open assumption that the rejection of theological dogmas, on
scientific grounds, is due to moral perversity, which is the
ordinary note of ecclesiastical homilies on this subject, and
which makes them look so supremely silly to men whose lives
have been spent in wrestling with these questions. There is no
attempt to hide away real stumbling-blocks under rhetorical
stucco; no resort to the /« quoque device of setting scientific

198 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

blunders against theological errors ; no suggestion that an honest
man m:iy keep contradictory beliefs in separate pockets of his
brain ; no question that the method of scientific investigation is
valid, whatever the results to which it may lead ; and that the
search after truth, and truth only, ennobles the searcher and
leaves no doubt that his life, at any rate, is worth living. . . .
How often was it my fate, a quarter of a century ago, to see the
whole artillery of the pulpit brought to bear upon the doctrine of
evolution and its supporters. Any one unaccustomed to the
amenities of ecclesiastical controversy would have thought we
were too wicked to be permitted to live."

In dealing, however, with the Bishop of Manchester's
sermon on the efficacy of prayer, Huxley points out
that, —

" . . . It is not upon any a priori considerations that objec-
tions, either to the supposed efficacy of prayer in modifying the
course of events, or to the supposed occurrence of miracles, can
be scientifically based. The real objection, and, to my mind,
the fatal objection, to both these suppositions, is the inadequacy
of the evidence to prove any given case of such occurrences
which has been adduced."

As to the fourth bishop (" Anonymous"), —

" I am afraid that if he represents any great party in the
Church, the spirit of justice and reasonableness which animates
the three bishops has as slender a chance of being imitated, on a
large scale, as their common sense and their courtesy. For,
not content with misrepresenting science on its speculative side,
'Anonymous' attacks its morality."

Another matter of general interest for 1887 is an inter-
view with the Premier (Lord Salisbury) in June, for the
purpose of considering whether or no it would be desir-
able to establish an English order Four le Merite, as a
recognition of distinguished services in Science, Letters
and Art. His attitude was summarized by Salisbury in
the words : " Well, it seems that you don't desire the

PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 199

establishment of such an order, but that if you were in
my place you would establish it." Long after, the idea
bore fruit in the initiation of the Order of Merit (O.M).
To this year, too, must be referred the article on the
** Progress of Science" (Coll. Essays, i, p. 42), written for
Mr. Humphry Ward's Jubilee book on The Reign of
Queen Victoria. This speaks of the great increase of
industrial production, owing to the invention of machinery,
including increased facilities of locomotion and intercom-
munication. The advance was largely due to Physical
Science. From the times of ancient Greece science
remained at a standstill for looo years, making renewed
progress during the last three centuries. The direct
influence of Bacon is challenged : —

" No delusion is greater than the notion that method and
industry can make up for lack of mother wit, either in science or
practical life. . . ."

A tribute is paid to Hobbes and Descartes, and the
work of Galileo, Harvey, Boyle and Newton stated to
be independent of Baconian and Cartesian methods.
Meation is made of Pascal, Torricelli, Malpighi, Grew,
Ray and Willoughby. Investigators of the highest rank
are not influenced by utilitarian ends : —

" That which stirs their pulses is the love of knowledge and
the joy of the discovery of the causes of things sung by the old
poet — the supreme delight of extending the realm of law and
order ever further towards the unattainable Goals of the infinitely
great and the infinitely small, between which our little race of
life is run."

Technical education is reacting on science, the interests
of which are identical with those of industry. " Physical
science is one and Indivisible." Our epoch is pre-
eminent as the result of the doctrines to which it has

200 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

given birth regarding the constitution of matter, the
conservation of energy, and evohition.

Mention must also be made here of a chapter " On
the Reception of the Origiti of Species,'" contributed to
Mr. Francis Darwin's Lije ami Letters of Charles Dariuin
(Vol. ii, 1887, pp. 179-204). One of the concluding
paragraphs of this runs as follows : —

" The known is finite, the unknown infinite ; intellectually
we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of
inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim
a little more land, to add something to the extent and the
solidity of our possessions. And even a cursory glance at the
history of the biological sciences during the last quarter of a
century is sufficient to justify the assertion, that the most potent
instrument for the extension of the realm of natural knowledge
which has come into men's hands, since the publication of
Newton's Princip'ta, is Darwin's Origin of Species."

A certain melancholy interest attaches to 1887, because
during its first half Huxley gave to the world the last
three scientific memoirs he was destined to produce : —

1. "Preliminary Note on the Fossil Remains of a
Chelonian Reptile, Ceratochelys sthenurus, from Lord
Howe's Island, Australia" (Proc. Roy. Soc, xliii, 1887,
pp. 232-8. Read March 31, 1 887. Sci. Mem., iv,
XXXV, p. 606).

2. "The Gentians: Notes and Queries" (J. Linn.
Soc. (Bot.), xxiv, 1888, pp. 101-24. Read April 7,
1887. Sci, Mem., iv, xxxvi, p. 612). — The origin of
this memoir has been already alluded to {cf. p. 181), and
it is of considerable value as a study in comparative
botany.

3. " Further Observations upon Hyperodapedon
Gordoni" [an extinct reptile], (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xliii,
1887, pp. 675-94. Read May 11, 1887. Sci. Mem.,
iv, XXXVII, p. 636).

CHAPTER XVIII

DEFENCE OF AGNOSTICISM [1888-1889].

The year 1888 started badly with a second attack of
pleurisy, and later on heart trouble was diagnosed,
proving a cause of marked weakness and depression, until
it was possible to get away to Switzerland in June.
Three months at Maloja, in the Upper Engadine, effected
marvels, but response to the favourable conditions was
much slower than on the occasion of previous Swiss
visits.

At the Anniversary Meeting of the Royal Society,
Huxley received the Copley Medal, and his gratification
at this mark of appreciation was enhanced by the fact
that Hooker had been the recipient the previous year.

His feelings are expressed in a letter to Flower (dated
November 1 7) : —

" The Royal Society has dealt very kindly with mc. They
patted me on the back when I started thirty-seven years ago,
and it was a great encouragement. They give me their best,
now that my race is run, and it is a great consolation. At the
far end of life all one's work looks so uncommonly small, that
the good opinion of one's contemporaries acquires a new value "
(Life, ii, p. 212).

Several offices were necessarily abandoned in the
autumn, including his position as a Governor of Eton,
and also his Examinership at South Kensington, though
this had involved little more than nominal responsibility
for some time. His last work in the latter capacity was
to draw up a new syllabus in General Biology, types

201

202 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

being added or discarded largely with reference to their
importance as supplying the necessary facts upon which
to base general principles. He was also succeeded by
Hooker as Treasurer of the x Club. On the other hand
he was appointed a Trustee of the British Museum.

An article on the '* Industrial Struggle for Existence,"
made its appearance in the Nitieteenth Century for February
(Coll. Essays, ix, p. 195). The reality of the struggle
for existence in its direct relation to mankind is em-
phasized, and undue pessimism, as well as undue optimism,
deprecated. Human societies involve problems of special
kind, for: —

"... society differs from nature in having a definite moral
object ; whence it comes about that the course shaped by the
ethical man — the member of society or citizen — necessarily runs
counter to that which the non-ethical man — the primitive savage,
or man as a mere member of the animal kingdom — tends to
adopt. The latter fights out the struggle for existence to the
bitter end, like any other animal ; the former devotes his best
energies to the object of setting limits to the struggle."

The evolution of civilization is sketched, and the
industrial problems of the present considered. To suc-
ceed in the competition with our trade rivals, our goods
must not only be relatively good, but reasonably cheap.
Hence labour must be paid at moderate rates, but wages
cannot be reduced below a certain point. Successful
competition also necessitates a state of social stability.
The physical and moral welfare of the working-classes
must be promoted, as well as their education in the
ordinary sense. A scheme of technical education is
detailed, involving the principles and including the sub-
jects already prominently brought forward in previous
addresses and essays.

The long-delayed Obituary Notice of Darwin for the

DARWIN OBITUARY NOTICE 203

Royal Society was at last completed and published
(Proc. Roy. Soc, xliv, 1888. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 253).
In this the non-essentials of the theory of Natural
Selection are clearly stated : —

" It is not essential to Darwin's theory that anything more
should be assumed than the facts of heredity, variation, and
unlimited multiplication ; and the validity of the deductive
reasoning as to the effect of the last (that is, of the struggle for
existence which it involves) upon the varieties resulting from the
operation of the former. Nor is it essential that one should
take up any particular position in regard to the mode of varia-
tion, whether, for example, it takes place per sallum or gradually;
whether it is definite in character or indefinite. Still less are
those who accept the theory bound to any particular views as to
the causes of heredity or of variation."

1889.

It is pleasing to know that comparative freedom from
illness rendered possible that " Indian summer " of life,
which made up Huxley's few remaining years. As Mr.
Leonard Huxley says : —

" From this time on, the effects of several years' comparative
rest became more perceptible. His slowly returning vigour was
no longer sapped by the unceasing strain of multifarious occupa-
tions. And if his recurrent ill-health sometimes seems too
strongly insisted on, it must be remembered that he had always
worked at the extreme limit of his powers — the limit, as he
used regretfully to say, imposed on his brain by his other organs
— and that after his first breakdown he was never very far from
a second. When this fina'ly came in 1884, his forces were so
far spent that he never expected to recover as he did."

The marriage of his two remaining daughters this year
facilitated a removal from London which had been in
contemplation. It was decided to build a house at East-
bourne, a place which had proved beneficial to his health

204 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

in a marked degree. Building operations commenced
this year, but the move did not take place till near the
end of the next. The summer months were once more
spent in Switzerland, first at Monte Generoso, and then
at Maloja, the benefit derived being extraordinary.
Walks of eighteen miles, and climbs of a thousand feet
or two could be accomplished, after a time, without
undue strain.

A meeting called by the Lord Mayor of London for
July I, with the object of securing support for the
Pasteur Institute, was the occasion of an eloquent letter
sent by Huxley to represent his opinions in the matter
(Nature, July 4, 1889).

" Monte Generoso, Switzerland,
" June 25, 1889.

" My Lord Mayor, — I greatly regret my inability to be
present at the meeting which is to be held, under your Lord-
ship's auspices, in reference to M. Pasteur and his Institute.
The unremitting labours of that eminent Frenchman during the
last half-century have yielded rich harvests of new truths, and
are models of exact and refined research. As such they deserve,
and have received, fll the honours which those who are the best
judges of their purely scientific merits are able to bestow. But
it so happens that these subtle and patient searchings out of the
ways of the infinitely little — of the swarming life where the
creature that measures one-thousandth part of an inch is a giant
— have also yielded results of supreme practical importance.
The path of M. Pasteur's investigations is strewed with gifts of
vast monetary value to the silk trades, the brewer, and the wine
merchant. And this being so, it might well be a proper and
graceful act on the part of the representatives of trade and com-
merce in its greatest centre to make some public recognition of
M. Pasteur's services, even if there were nothing further to be
said about them. But there is much more to be said. M.
Pasteur's direct and indirect contributions to our knowledge of
the causes of diseased states, and of the means of preventing

TRIBUTE TO PASTEUR 205

their recurrence, are not measurable by money values, but by
those of healthy life and diminished suffering to men. Medicine,
surgery, and hygiene have all been powerfully affected by
M. Pasteur's work, which has culminated in his method of
treating hydrophobia. I cannot conceive that any competently
instructed person can consider M. Pasteur's labours in this
direction without arriving at the conclusion that, if any man has
earned the praise and honour of his fellows, he has. I find it
no less difficult to imagine that our wealthy country should be
other than ashamed to continue to allow its citizens to profit by
the treatment freely given at the Institute without contributing
to its support. Opposition to the proposals which your Lordship
sanctions would be equally conceivable if it arose out of nothing
but the facts of the case thus presented. But the opposition
which, as I see from the English papers, is threatened, has really
for the most part nothing to do either with M. Pasteur's merits
or with the efficacy of his method of treating hydrophobia. It
proceeds partly from the fanatics of la'tssez /aire, who think it
better to rot and die than to be kept whole and lively by State
interference, partly from the blind opponents of properly con-
ducted physiological experimentation, who prefer that men
should suffer rather than rabbits or dogs, and partly from those
who for other but not less powerful motives hate everything
which contributes to prove the value of strictly scientific methods
of inquiry in all those questions which affect the welfare of
society. I sincerely trust that the good sense of the meeting
over which your Lordship will preside will preserve it from
being influenced by those unworthy antagonisms, and that the
just and benevolent enterprise you have undertaken may have a
happy issue. — I am, my Lord Mayor, your obedient servant,

" Thomas H. Huxley."

At the Church Congress held in Manchester during
the previous October, Dr. Wace, the Principal of King's
College, made an attack upon Agnosticism, which was
supported by Mr. Frederic Harrison and Mr. Laing, in
articles contributed to the Nineteenth Century. This led to
a series of four articles by Huxley, the first of which
"Agnosticism" appeared in the same periodical for
February 1889 (Coll. Essays, v, p. 209).

2o6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Dr. Wace asserted that an agnostic was merely an
infidel : —

" The word iniidel, perhaps, carries an unpleasant significance.
Perhaps it is right that it should. It is, and it ought to be, an
unpleasant thing tor a man to have to say plainly that he does not
believe in Jesus Christ."

With reference to this Huxley remarks : —

" There is an attractive simplicity about this solution of the
problem, and it has that advantage of being somewhat offensive
to the persons attacked, which is so dear to the less refined sort
of controversialist.

" Now, the question as to what Jesus really said and did is
strictly a scieniific problem, which is capable of solution by no
other methods than those practised by the hi-torian and the literary
critic. It is a problem of immense ditliculty, which has occupied
some of the best heads in liurope for the last century ; and it is
only of late years that their investigations have begun to converge
towards one conclusion."

The Gadarene swine are then introduced upon the
scene : —

"Until the contrary is proved, I venture to doubt whether, at
the present moment, any Protestant theologian, who has a reputa-
tion to lose, will say that he believes the Gadarene story."

Further on, agnosticism is defined at length : —

" Agnosticism, in fact, is not a creed, but a method, the essence
of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle.
That principle is of great antiquity ; it is as old as Socrates ; as
old as the writer who said, ' Try all things, hold fast by that
which is good ; ' it is the foundation of the Reformation, which
simply illustrated the axiom that every man should be able to
give a reason for the faith that is in him ; it is the great principle
of Descartes ; it is the fundamental axiom of modern science.
Positively the principle may be expressed : in matters of the
intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without
any regard to any other consideration. And negatively : in

DEFENCE OF AGNOSTICISM 207

matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain
which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be
the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole and undefiled, he
shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever
the future may have in store for him."

Mr. Harrison's article in the Fortnightly Review for
January 1889, is dealt with in vigorous fashion. Should
Christianity prove untenable, it will no doubt be replaced
by a worthy successor : —

" But that the incongruous mixture of bad science with
eviscerated papistry, out of which Comte manufactured the
positivist religion, will be the heir of the Christian ages, I have
too much respect for the humanity of the future to believe."

In the March number of the Niiieteenth Century we find
a subsidiary article entitled " The Value of Witness to
the Miraculous" (Coll. Essays, v, p. 160). This deals
with certain miracles supposed to have been wrought by
the remains of two Christian martyrs, as described in
The History of the Translation of the Blessed Martyrs of
Christ, SS. Marcellinus and Petrus, written by Eginhard,
an official in the Court of Charlemagne. Huxley submits
that the historical evidence for these miracles is as good
as if not better than that on which the miracles of the
New Testament are accepted.

The same number of the Nineteenth CetJtury contained
replies by Dr. Wace and Bishop Magee, as well as an
article by Mrs. Humphry Ward on "The New Refor-
mation," which supported Huxley's views : —

" She has swept away the greater part of Wace's sophistries
as a dexterous and strong-wristed housemaid sweeps away cob-
webs with her broom, and saved a lot of time " (Letter to
Knowles, Feb. 29, 1889. Life, ii, p. 222).

Then followed "Agnosticism: a Rejoinder," in the

2o8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Nineteenth Century for April (Coll. Essays, v, p. 263).
There the difficulty of coming to any definite conclusion
as to what Christ's utterances actually were is dealt with
at length, and the following reasons are advanced for
Huxley's advocacy of Bible-reading {cf, p. 102) : —

" Greatly to the surprise of many of my friends, I have always
advocated the reading of the Bible, and the diffusion of the study
of that most remarkable collection of books among the people.
Its teachings are so infinhely superior to those of the sects, who
are just as busy now as the Pharisees were eighteen hundred
years ago, in smothering them under ' the precepts of men ' ; it
is so certain, to my mind, that the Bible contains within itself
the refutation of nine-tenths of the mixture of metaphysics and
old-world superstition which has been piled round it by the
so-called Christians of later times : it is so clear that the only
immediate and ready antidote to the poison which has been mixed
with Christianity, to the intoxication and delusion of mankind,
lies in copious draughts from the undefiled spring, that I exercise
the right and duty of free judgment on the part of every man,
mainly for the purpose of inducing other laymen to follow my
exam.ple. If the New Testament is translated into Zulu by
Protestant missionaries, it must be assumed that a Zulu convert
is competent to draw from its contents all the truths which it is
necessary for him to believe. I trust that I may, without
immodesty, claim to be put on the same footing as a Zulu."

Huxley's last contribution to this controversy appeared
in the Nineteenth Century for June, under the title of
" Agnosticism and Christianity" (Coll. Essays, v, p. 309).
An unexpected, mischievously humorous, turn is given
to the discussion by citations from Cardinal Newman's
opinions. There is no logical middle course between
accepting modern as well as ancient miracles, and reject-
ing both : —

" Dr. Newman made his choice and passed over to the Roman
Church half a century ago. Some of those who were essentially
in harmony with his views preceded, and many followed him.

DEFENCE OF AGNOSTICISM 209

But many remained : and, as the quondam Puseyite and present
Ritualistic party, they are continuing that work of sapping and
mining the Protestantism of the Anglican Church which he and
his friends so ably commenced. At the present time, they have
no little claim to be considered victorious all along the line. I
am old enough to recollect the small beginnings of the Tractarian
party, and I am amazed when I consider the present position of
their heirs. Their little leaven has leavened, if not the whole,
yet a very large lump of the Anglican Church ; which is now
pretty much of a preparatory school for Papistry. So that it
really behoves Englishmen (who, as I have been informed by
high authority, are all legally members of the State Church, if
they profess to belong to no other sect) to wake up to what that
powerful organization is about, and whither it is tending. On
this point, the writings of Dr. Newman, while he still remained
within the Anglican fold, are a vast store of the best and the
most autlaoritative information. His doctrines on Ecclesiastical
miracles and on development are the corner-stones of the
Tractarian fabric. He believed that his arguments led either
Romeward, or to what ecclesiastics call ' Infidelity,' and I call
Agnosticism. I believe that he was quite right in this conviction,
but while he chooses the one alternative, I choose the other. . . ."

It has been mentioned that Bishop Magee took part in
the controversy on Agnosticism, and it is desirable in
this place to quote a foot-note added by Huxley to the
essay on " Agnosticism," in Vol. V. of the Collected
Essays (p. 210) : —

" In this place and in the eleventh essay (' Illustrations of Mr.
Gladstone's Controversial Methods '), there are references to the
late Archbishop of York, which are of no importance to my
main argument, and which I have expunged, because I desire to
obliterate the traces of a temporary misunderstanding with a man
of rare ability, candour, and wit, for whom I entertained a great
liking and no less respect. I rejoice to think now of the (then)
Bishop's cordial hail the first time we met after our little skirmish,
' Well, is it to be peace or war ? ' I replied, ' A little of both.'
But there was only peace when we parted, and ever after."

Huxley's " Autobiography " was also written this year
o

2IO THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

(Coll. Essays, i, p. i), and published as part of a series
of biographical sketches by C. Engel. Several quota-
tions from it have already been made (pp. i, 2, 4, 21, 34).
He also took part in a correspondence which appeared in
the Times, in the later part of the year, and arose out of
questions as to private property in land, propounded to
Mr. John Morley at Newcastle. This led to a series of
articles on political philosophy, contributed to the Nine-
teenth Century for 1 890, the first being written before the
close of 1889.

CHAPTER XIX

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY— MORE CRITICAL THEOLOGY

[1890-1891].

The events of 1890 include a trip to the Canaries of
Huxley and his son Harry, whom he wished to give " a
run for a month or six weeks," on the completion of his
course as a medical student. The travellers left London
on April 3, and reached the Islands on April 10, leaving
again for Madeira on May 2. What with the voyage
and the open-air life, Huxley by this time felt "ten years
younger." The botanical interests aroused by study of
the gentians are evidenced in a letter written to Hooker
immediately after the return home. During his absence
the Linnean Society had awarded him the Linnean Medal,
to which the letter in question (dated May 18) alludes,
with special reference to the digestive dangers of a
public dinner : —

" But what is a man to do if his friends take advantage of his
absence, and go giving him gold medals behind his back ? That
you have been an accomplice in this nefarious plot — mine own
familiar friend whom I trusted and trust — is not to be denied.
Well, it is very pleasant to have toil that is now all ancient
history remembered, and I shall go to the meeting and the dinner
and make my speech in spite of as many possible devils of dyspepsia
as there are plates and dishes on the table" (Life, ii, pp. 256-7).

The move into the new house at Eastbourne took
place early in December, the name " Hodeslea " being
selected, " which is as near as I can go to ' Hodesleia,'

211

2 12 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

the poetical original shape of my very ugly name." A
large part of his library was presented to the Royal
College of Science, and the Registrar, in returning
thanks for the gift, communicated the resolution which
had been adopted : —

" That the library shall be kept in the room formerly occupied
by the Dean, which shall be called ' The Huxley Laboratory
for Biological Research,' and be devoted to the prosecution of
original Researches in Biological Science, with which the name
of Professor Huxley is inseparably associated " (Life, ii,
p. 284).

The first of the series of essays upon political philo-
sophy, " The Natural Inequality of Men," appeared in
the Nineteenth Century for January (Coll. Essays, i, p. 2qo).
It deals with the inexact ideas regarding natural equality,
rights in property, and so on, which first attained pro-
minence in the writings of Rousseau, and had recently
been promulgated afresh. The second of the series,
" Natural and Political Rights," in the February number
(Coll. Essays, i, p. 336), analyzes the views of Henry
George, as given in Progress and Poverty, which is essen-
tially a presentment of Rousseauism recast.

The third essay, "Capital, the Mother of Labour," in
the March number (Coll. Essays, ix, p. 147), deals with
" An Economical Problem discussed from a Physiological
Point of View," arriving at the following conclusions : —

" I think it may not be too much to say that, of all the political
delusions which are current in this queer world, the very stupidest
are those which assume that labour and capital are necessarily
antagonistic ; that all capital is produced by labour and therefore,
by natural right, is the property of the labourer ; that the possessor
of capital is a robber who preys on the workman and appropriates
to himself that which he has had no share in producing.

" On the contrary, capital and labour are, necessarily, close
allies ; capital is never a product of human labour alone ; it

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 213

exists apart from human labour ; it is the necessary antecedent
of labour ; and it furnishes the materials on which labour is
employed. The only indispensable form of capital — vital capital
— cannot be produced by human labour. All that man can do
is to favour its formation by the real producers. There is no
intrinsic relation between the amount of labour bestowed on an
article and its value in exchange. The claim of labour to the
total result of operations which are rendered possible only by
capital is simply an a priori iniquity."

The fourth and last essay in the series, " Government :
Anarchy or Regimentation," appeared in May (Coll.
Essays, i, p. 383), and here the results of putting into
practice extrepie individualism on the one hand, or
extreme socialism on the other, are vividly sketched,
and the foundations of the two critically examined. The
previous essays had evoked numerous criticisms of the
most diverse kind, and the socialists conceived them to
be written with the intention of supporting the existing
state of things, and opposing progress. In the essay on
" Government," this last charge is thus answered : —

'* Those who have had the patience to follow me to the end
will, I trust, have become aware that my aim has been altogether
different. Even the best of modern civilizations appears to me
to exhibit a condition of mankind which neither embodies any
worthy ideal nor even possesses the merit of stability. I do not
hesitate to express my opinion that, if there is no hope of a
large improvement of the condition of the greater part of the
human family ; if it is true that the increase of knowledge, the
winning of a greater dominion over Nature which is its conse-
quence, and the wealth which follows upon that dominion, are
to make no difference in the extent and tiie intensity of Want,
with its concomi'ant physical and moral degradation, among the
masses of the people, I should hail the advent of some kindly
comet, which would sweep the whole affair away, as a desirable
consummation. What profits it to the human Prometheus that
he has stolen the fire of heaven to be his servant, and that the
spirits of the earth and of the air obey him, if the vulture of

2 14 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

pauperism is eternally to tear his very vitals and keep him on
the brink of destruction.

'* Assuredly, if I believed that any of the schemes hitherto
proposed for bringing about social amelioration were likely to
attain their end, I should think what remains to me of life well
spent in furthering it. But my interest in these questions did not
begin the day before yesterday ; and, whether right or wrong, it
is no hasty conclusion of mine that we have small chance of
doing rightly in this matter (or indeed in any other) unless we
think rightly. Further, that we shall never think rightly in
politics until we have cleared our minds of delusions, and more
especially of the philosophical delusions which, as I have en-
deavoured to show, have infested political thought for centuries.
My main purpose has been to contribute my mite towards this
essential preliminary operation. Ground must be cleared and
levelled before a building can be properly commenced ; the
labour of the navvy is as necessary as that of the architect, how-
ever much less honoured ; and it has been my humble endeavour
to grub up those old stumps of the a priori which stand in the
way of the very foundations of a sane political philosophy. To
those who think that questions of the kind have merely an
academic interest, let me suggest once more that a century ago
Robespierre and St. Just proved that the way of answering them
may have extremely practical consequences."

A sermon published by Canon Liddon upholding the
authority of such portions of the Old Testament as are
quoted by Christ in the New, led to the writing of an
article, " The Lights of the Church and the Light of
Science," for the July number of the Nineteenth Century
(Coll. Essays, iv, p. 2oi). The essay agrees with the
conclusion that there is a vital relation between the New
and Old Testaments : —

" I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how any one, for a
moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall
with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures."

There is no reason why one particular group of
historical writings should be exempt from the methods

CRITICAL THEOLOGY 215

of criticism applied to such works in general. The pro-
gress of higher criticism is sketched, and the case of
the Deluge dealt with in detail. Finally, the untena-
bility of the clerical position is commented on in strong
terms : —

" It is, indeed, probable that the proportional number of
those who will distinctly profess their belief in the transubstantia-
tion of Lot's wife, and the anticipatory experience of submarine
navigation by Jonah : in water standing fathoms deep on the
side of a declivity without anything to hold it up ; and in devils
who enter swine — will not increase, but neither is there ground
for much hope that the proportion of those who cast aside these
fictions and adopt the consequence of that repudiation, are,
for some generations, likely to constitute a majority. Our age
is a day of compromises. The present and the near future seem
given over to those happily, if curiously, constituted people who
see as little difficulty in throwing aside any amount of post-
Abrahamic Scriptural narrative, as the authors of Lux Mundi
see in sacrificing the pre-Abrahamic stories ; and, having dis-
tilled away every inconvenient matter of fact in Christian history,
continue to pay divine honours to the residue."

We have also for 1890 a renewal of controversy with
Mr. Gladstone, who, in the autumn, wrote an article for
Good Words on " The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scrip-
ture," in which the position taken up by Huxley the
previous year was attacked. The Preface (dated
December 4, 1 893) to Vol. V. of the Collected Essays,
as already indicated (cf. p. 193), sets forth the circum-
stances which led to work in critical theology, first
as regards the Old Testament, then as regards the
New : —

" I had set out on a journey, with no other purpose than that
of exploring a certain province of natural knowledge ; I strayed
no hair's-breadth from the course which it was my right and my
duty to pursue ; and yet I found that, whatever route I took, be-

2i6 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

fore long, I came to a tall and formidable-looking fence. Confident
as I might be in the existence of an ancient and indefeasible
right-of-way, before me stood the thorny barrier with its
comminatory notice-board — ' No Thoroughfare. By Order.
Moses.' There seemed no way over; nor did the prospect of
creeping round, as I saw some do, attract me. . . . The only
alternatives were either to give up my journey — which I was not
minded to do — or to break the fence down and go through it."

As to the extension of criticism to the New Testa-
ment : —

" Thirty years ago, criticism of ' Moses ' was held by most
respectable people to be deadly sin ; now it has sunk to the rank
of a mere peccadillo ; at least, if it stops short of the history of
Abraham. . . .

" Well, we will pass the item of i860, said the ' voice ' [of
conscience]. But why all this more recent coil about the
Gadarene swine and the like ? Do you pretend that these
poor animals got in your way, years and years after the ' Mosaic '
fences were down, at any rate so far as you are concerned ?
Got in my way ? why my good ' voice,' they were driven in my
way. . . .

" The half-hearted religiosity of latter-day Christianity may
choose to ignore the fact ; but it remains none the less true, that
he who refuses to accept the demonology of the Gospels rejects
the revelation of a spiritual world, made in them, as much as if
he denied the existence of such a person as Jesus of Nazareth ;
and deserves, as much as any one can do, to be ear-marked
' infidel ' by our gentle shepherds."

The reply to Mr. Gladstone's attack appeared in the
December number of the Nitieteentb Century, under the
title of " The Keepers of the Herd of Swine " (Coll.
Essays, v, p. 336). One reason for undertaking the
article is to clearly state the position of the writer,
for, —

" the warmest admirers of Mr. Gladstone will hardly be pre-
pared to maintain that mathematical accuracy in stating the

THE ARYAN QUESTION 217

opinions of an opponent is the most prominent feature of his con-
troversial method,"

A much more bitter controversy in regard to the
Salvation Army, in which Huxley took part, began in the
Times towards the end of the year, but an account of this
may for the moment be postponed.

The November number of the Nineteenth Century con-
tained his last contribution to pure science, entitled " On
the Aryan Question" (Colh Essays, vii, p. 271). To
eliminate any suspicion of personal predilection, he
humorously remarks : —

" The combination of swarthiness with stature above the
average and a long slcull, confer upon me the serene impartiality
of a mongrel."

He is inclined to admit that the " primitive Aryans "
were a distinct race, and favours, for working purposes,
a modification of Latham's Sarmatian hypothesis as
against the older Hindoo-Koosh-Pamir theory. The
probable cradle of the Aryan race is defined as including
" the higher parts and a good deal of the northern slopes
of Europe between the Ural and the German Ocean. . . ."

Then follows an account of the physical characters of
the earliest known prehistoric inhabitants of Europe
known to science by their actual remains, as against still
more ancient races of which only the weapons, im-
plements, etc., now remain : —

" As some writing of mine on the subject {i.e. Neanderthal
Man, etc., cf. pp. 65, 74] led to my occupation of a prominent
position among the belaboured dogs of that day, I have taken a
mild interest in watching the gradual rehabilitation of my old
friend of the Neanderthal among normal men, which has been
going on of late years."

And finally the opinion is expressed that the Neander-

2i8 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

thai race is so immensely ancient that, were our know-
ledge complete, it would be possible to connect the type
with existing Aryans by a series of imperceptible grada-
tions.

Had not Huxley's health compelled the abandonment
of scientific research, large and important additions would
have been made to the enormous mass actually published.
An account of his unfinished work is given in Appendix
I. to his Life atid Letters, as drawn up by the late Prof.
G. B. Howes after examination of the drawings and
manuscript papers which form part of the Library pre-
sented to the Royal College of Science.

1891.

A legacy, in the form of a small estate at Worthing,
from Mr. Anthony Rich, the antiquarian, afforded the
means of buying a piece of ground adjacent to Hodeslea,
thus contributing greatly to the happiness of Huxley's
remaining years, by enabling him to gratify a newly-
discovered taste for gardening. In a letter to Hooker
(dated July 3, 1 891), for example, we read: "I find nailing
up creepers a delightful occupation " (Life, ii, p. 287).

And in a letter to the late Prof. T. J. Parker (dated
August II, 1 891), he says : —

" .... I begin to think with Candida that ' cultivons notre
jardin' comprises the whole duty of man" (Life, ii, p. 289).

Most of the year was spent in Eastbourne, but in
September he and his wife visited the Wye valley and
Llangollen, returning by way of Chester, for the purpose
of seeing Old Huxley Hall, the original home of the
family. An opportunity was also taken of renewing the
memories of youth, by including Coventry in the itinerary

GLADSTONE'S METHODS 219

and going to look at the house there in which he had
once lived.

Of controversy for the year there is no lack. Articles
in answer to "The Keepers of the Herd of Swine"
appeared in the Nineteenth Century for January and
February, by the Duke of Argyll and Mr. Gladstone
respectively. The next number contained Huxley's re-
joinder, entitled " Mr. Gladstone's Controversial Methods "
(Coll, Essays, v, p, 393). The Gadarene swine question is
here entered into very fully, and discussed as a historical
problem in the solution of which all available facts are
employed. And as the title indicates, the article deals
not only with the matter but also the manner of Glad-
stone's attacks,—

" couched in language which certainly does not err upon the
side of moderation or of courtesy. . . .

" Persons who, like myself, have spent their lives outside the
political world, yet take a mild and philosophic concern in what
goes on in it, often find it difficult to understand what our
neighbours call the psychological moment of this or that party
leader, and are, occasionally, loth to believe in the seeming con-
ditions of certain kinds of success. And when some chieftain,
famous in political warfare, adventures into the region of Ittters
or of science, in full confidence that the methods which have
brought fame and honour in his own province will answer there,
he is apt to forget that he will be judged by those people on
whom rhetorical artifices have long ceased to take effisct, and to
whom mere dexterity in putting together cleverly ambiguous
phrases, and even the great art of offensive misrepresentation, are
unspeakably wearisome. And, if that weariness finds its ex-
pression in sarcasm, the offender really has no right to cry out.
Assuredly, ridicule is no test of truth, but it is the righteous
meed of some kinds of error."

Since the Duke of Argyll did not take the opportunity
of withdrawing certain erroneous statements (r/^ p. 197),
further controversy with him is declined.

220 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Two other contributions to critical theology, " Hasi-
dadra's Adventure," and "Possibilities and Impossi-
bilities," naturally connect here. The former (Nineteenth
Century, June 1891. Coll. Essays, iv, p. 239) analyzes
the evidence for a universal deluge. The Babylonian
version of the flood myth is taken as the basis for dis-
cussion, and after a full consideration of the geological,
geographical, and other data, the following conclusion is
reached : —

" Thus it would seem that the Euphrates valley, the centre of
the fabled Noachian deluge, is also the centre of a region cover-
ing some millions of square miles of the present continents of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, in which all the facts, relevant to the
argument, at present known, converge to the conclusion that, since
the miocene epoch, the essential features of its physical geography
have remained unchanged; that it has neither been depressed
below the sea, nor swept by diluvial waters since that time ; and
that the Chaldean version of the legend of a flood in the
Euphrates valley is, of all those which are extant, the only one
which is even consistent with probability, since it depicts a local
inundation, not more severe than one which might be brought
about by a concurrence of favourable conditions at the present
day ; and which might probably have been more easily effected
when the Persian Gulf extended farther north."

A " Postscript " to this article contains an interesting
paragraph : —

" My best thanks are due to Mr. Gladstone for his courteous
withdrawal of one of the statements to which I have thought it
needful to take exception. The familiarity with controversy, to
which Mr. Gladstone alludes, will have accustomed him to the
misadventures which arise when, as sometimes will happen in the
heat of fence, the buttons come off the foils. I trust that any
scratch which he may have received will heal as quickly as my
own llesh wounds have done."

The second article, on " Possibilities and Impossi-

DARKEST ENGLAND SCHEME 221

bilities" (Agnostic Annual, 1 892, published October 1 891.
Coll. Essays, v, p. 192), deals with the agnostic attitude
in regard to miracles, of which the one relating to the
Gadarene Swine had been the subject of so much con-
troversy : —

" Let us be content with rational certainty, leaving irrational
certainties to those who like to muddle their heads with them.
I cannot see my way to say that demons are impossibilities ;
but I am not more certain about anything than I am that the
evidence tendered in favour of the demonology, of which the
Gadarene story is a typical example, is utterly valueless. I can-
not see my way to say that it is ' impossible' that the hunger of
thousands of men should be satisfied out of the food supplied by
half-a-dozen loaves and a fish or two ; but it seems to me
monstrous that I should be asked to believe it on the faith of the
five stories which testify to such an occurrence."

The controversy on the Salvation Army " Darkest
England Scheme," which commenced near the end of
1890, had a rather curious origin. A lady who was
willing to subscribe _^iooo to this scheme first asked
Huxley for his advice in the matter, and the results of
his investigations are embodied in "Social Diseases and
Worse Remedies, Letters to the Times, on Mr. Booth's
Scheme. With a Preface and Introductory Essay " (Coll.
Essays, ix, p. 188). The conclusions reached were that
serious political and social dangers might be involved in
such a scheme ; that it might seriously interfere with
other philanthropic enterprises ; and that the administra-
tion in a reasonable matter of funds subscribed was not
properly secured. But after detailing in the Preface the
possible evils which might result from the scheme,
Huxley expressly says : —

" I entirely acquit Mr. Booth of any complicity in far-reaching
schemes of this kind ; but I did not write idly when, in my first

222 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

letter, T gave no vague warning of what might grow out of the
organized force, drilled in the habit of unhesitating obedience,
which he has created."

Allusion has already been made {cf. p. 202) to the
Introductory Essay on '* The Struggle for Existence in
Human Society," prefixed to the reprinted letters.

Some of Huxley's Essays on Education were translated
into French during 1891, and published under the title
of Les Sciences Naturelles et {Education^ he himself contri-
buting a preface. The French edition of " Man's Place in
Nature " {La Place de P Homme dans la Nature), which had
appeared more than a score of years previously, was also
re-issued, together with translations by H. de Varigny
of three ethnological essays. A letter to the trans-
lator (dated May 17, 1891) contains the following
paragraph : —

" I am quite conscious that the condensed and idiomatic
English into which I always try to put my thoughts, must
present many difficulties to a translator. But a friend ot mine
who is a much better French scholar than I am, and who looked
over two or three of the essays, told me he thought you had been
remarkably successful (Life, ii, pp. 290-1).

Another quotation from the same letter has been given
elsewhere (cf. p. 23).

Mention has already been made, in several places, of
Huxley's devotion to the mother tongue he handled in so
masterly a fashion, and on the teaching of which he held
very strong views. These find expression in a letter to
the Pal/ Ma// Gazette (October 22, 1891), the occasion
being the establishment of a Chair in the University of
Oxford, nominally of English Literature, really of
Middle English Philology. Here he states his con-
viction : —

THE STUDY OF ENGLISH 223

" Firstly, that the works of our great English writers are pre-
eminently worthy of being systematically studied in our schools
and universities as literature ; and secondly, that the establish-
ment of professional chairs of philologj', under the name of
literature, may be a profit to science, but is really a fraud practised
upon letters.

" That a young Englishmen may be turned out of one of our
universities, ' epopt and perfect ' so far as their system takes him,
and yet ignorant of the noble literature which has grown up in
these islands during the last three centuries, no less than of the
development of the philosophical and political ideas which have
most profoundly influenced modern civilization, is a fact in the
history of the nineteenth century which the twentieth will find
hard to believe ; though, perhaps, it is not more incredible than
our current superstition that whoso wishes to write and speak
English well should mould his style after the models furnished
by classical antiquity. . . . But still I mark among distinguished
contemporary speakers and writers of English, saturated with
antiquity, not a few to whom, it seems to me, the study of
Hobbes might have taught dignity ; of Swift, concision and
clearness ; of Goldsmith and Defoe, simplicity.

" Well, among a hundred young men whose university career
is finished, is there one whose attention has ever been directed
by his literary instructors to a page of Hobbes, or Swift, or
Goldsmith, or Defoe ? In my boyhood we were familiar with
Robinson Crusoe^ The F'tcar of Wakefield, and Gulliver s Travels ;
and though the mysteries of ' Middle English ' were hidden from
us, my impression is, we ran less chance of learning to write and
speak the ' middling English ' of popular orators and head-
masters than if we had been perfect in such mysteries and
ignorant of those three masterpieces. It has been the fashion to
decry the eighteenth century, as young fops laugh at their fathers.
But we were there in germ ; and a ' Professor of Eighteenth-
Century History and Literature' who knew his business might
tell young Englishmen more of that which it is profoundly
important they should know, but which at present remains
hidden from them, than any other instructor ; and, incidentally,
they would learn to know good English when they see or
hear it — perhaps even to discriminate between slipshod copious-
ness and true eloquence, and that alone would be a great
gain."

224 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

A number of our teaching institutions have been con-
cerned of late years with the difficult task of training
agricultural students ; and the framing of courses em-
bodying science and practice in suitable proportions has
engaged the attention and led to the co-operation of
professional scientists and ''practical" men, not always
with the happiest result. Huxley's views on the subject
are indicated in a letter to the Torkshire Herald (April
II, 1 891), answering questions asked by Mr. J. Harri-
son, who had been preparing a paper on " Technical
Education as applied to Agriculture " for the Easingwold
Agricultural Club : —

" I am afraid that my opinion upon the subject of your inquiry

is worth very litde — my ignorance of practical agriculture being

profound. However, there are some general principles which

apply to all technical training ; the first of these, I think, is that

practice is to be learned only by practice. The farmer must be

made by and through farm work, i believe I might be able to

give you a fair account of a bean plant and of the manner and

condition of its growth, but if I were to try to raise a crop ot

beans, your club would probably laugh consumedly at the result.

Nevertheless, I believe that you practical people would be all the

better for the scientific knowledge which does not enable me to

grow beans. It would keep you from attempting hopeless

experiments, and would enable you to take advantage of the

innumerable hints which Dame Nature gives to people who live

in direct contact with things. And this leads me to the second

general principle, which I think applies to all technical teaching

for school-boys and school-girls, and that is, that they should be

led from the observation of the commonest facts to general

scientific truths. If I were called upon to frame a course of

elementary instruction preparatory to agriculture, I am not sure

I should attempt chemistry, or botany, or physiology, or geology,

as such. It is a method fraught with the danger of spending

too much time and attention on abstraction and theories, on

words and notions instead of things. The history of a bean, ot

a grain of wheat, of a turnip, of a sheep, of a pig, or of a cow,

properly treated — with the introduction of the elements of

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 225

chemistry, physiology, and so on as they come in — would give
all the elementary science which is needed for the compre-
hension of the processes of agriculture in a form easily assimi-
lated by the youthful mind, which loathes everything in the
shape of long words and abstract notions, and small blame
to it."

CHAPTER XX

CLOSING YEARS [1892-I895].

It is generally understood that Huxley might have had
a title in recognition of his eminence as a scientist, but his
views on the subject were very clearly defined and were
expressed, for instance, in his address on " Administrative
Nihilism" (Coll. Essays, i, p. 287) : —

" The sole order of nobility which, in my judgment, becomes
a philosopher, is the rank which he holds in the estimation of his
fellow-workers, who are the only competent judges in such
matters. Newton and Cuvier lowered themselves when the one
accepted an idle knighthood, and the other became a baron of
the empire. The great men who went to their graves as
Michael Faraday aad George Grote seem to me to have under-
stood the dignity of knowledge better when they declined all
such meretricious trappings."

His objection, however, did not apply to men of science
occupying official posts, and given titles on that account.
Nor did it extend to membership of the Privy Council
(an office involving a title), as once stated in conversation
to Sir John Donnelly. And, during the summer of 1892,
Huxley was offered and accepted the distinction of a
Privy Councillorship, Donnelly, as Secretary of the Science
and Art Department, having first been sounded on the
matter. The compliment gave very natural pleasure, not
unmixed with a little quiet amusement. Both these
elements, for example, together with appreciation of long-
standing friendship, are to be found in a letter to Donnelly

(dated August 20, 1892) : —

226

A PRIVY COUNCILLOR 227

" I began to think that Lord Salisbury had thought better of
it — (I should not have been surprised at all if he had), and was
going to leave me a P.P.C. instead of a P.C. when the announce-
ment appeared yesterday.

" This morning, however, I received his own letter (dated
the 1 6th), which has been following me about. A very nice
letter it is too — he does the thing handsomely while he is about
it.

" Well, I think the thing is good for science ; I am not such
a self humbug as to pretend that my vanity is not pleasantly
tickled ; but I do not think there is any aspect of the affair more
pleasant to me, than the evidence it affords of the strength of
our old friendship. Because, with all respect for my noble friends,
deuce a one would ever have thought of it, unless you had not only
put it — but rubbed it — into their heads " (Life, ii, pp. 323-4).

And again, to Hooker (same date) : —

" You will have seen that I have been made a P.C. If I had
been offered to be made a police constable 1 could not have been
more flabbergasted than I was when the proposition came to me
a few weeks ago. . . . The Archbishopric of Canterbury is
the only object of ambition that remains to me" (Life, ii,

P-3H)-

The already thinned ranks of the x Club were still
further diminished by the deaths of T. A. Hirst in
February, and Tennyson in October. Huxley attended
the funeral of the latter in Westminster Abbey, and
afterwards wrote some verses by way of farewell, published
in the Nineteenth Century for November. We find from
Mr. Wilfrid Ward's reminiscences that : —

" Tennyson he considered the greatest English master of
melody except Spenser and Keats" (Life, ii, p. 338).

And in a letter to Tyndall (dated October 15, 1892),
Tennyson is described as : —

" . . . . the first poet since Lucretius who has understood the
drift of science" (loc. cit.).

228 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Late in 189 1 thirty-eight of the clergy of the Church
of England issued a manifesto declaring the Bible to be
inspired and infallible, upon which a very lively con-
troversy in the Times ensued. Huxley was dragged into
this, and contributed four letters during the early part
of 1892. Of these the second (dated February 3), is
perhaps the most important, as bringing into sharp
contrast the teachings of Genesis and those of natural
science : —

" I conceive the first chapter of Genesis to teach — (i) that
the species of animals and plants owe their origin to supernatural
acts of creation ; (2) that these acts took place at such times and
in such a manner that all the plants were created first, all the
aquatic and aerial animals (notably birds) next, and all terrestrial
animals last. I am not aware that any Hebrew scholar denies
that these propositions agree with the natural sense of the text.
Sixty years ago I was taught, as most people were then taught,
that they are guaranteed by Divine authority.

" On the other hand, in my judgment, natural science teaches
no less distinctly — (i) that the species of animals and plants have
originated by a process of natural evolution ; (2) that this pro-
cess has taken place in such a manner that the species of animals
and plants, respectively, have come into existence one after
another throughout the whole period since they began to exist on
the earth ; that the species of plants and animals known to us
are, as a whole, neither older nor younger the one than the
other. . . .

" Until it is shown that the first two propositions are not con-
tained in the first chapter of Genesis, and that the second pair
are not justified by the present condition of our knowledge, I
must continue to maintain that natural science and the ' Mosaic '
account of the origin of animals and plants are in irreconcilable
antagonism."

The controversial essays of more recent years were
now republished in volume form as Controverted Questions^
the long " Prologue " to which, "... cost me more time
and pains than any equal number of pages I have ever

CONTROVERTED QUESTIONS 229

written" (Life, ii, p. 298). It is reprinted in the Collected
Essays (v, p. i).

The Prologue is designed to show that the essays it
precedes, though apparently disconnected, are : —

** . . . concerned only with different aspects of a single
problem, with which thinking men have been occupied, ever since
they began seriously to consider the wonderful frame of things in
which their lives are set, and to seek for trustworthy guidance
among its intricacies. . . .

" Men are growing to be seriously alive to the fact that the
historical evolution of humanity, which is generally, and I venture
to think not unreasonably, regarded as progress, has been, and is
being, accompanied by a co-ordinate elimination of the super-
natural from its originally large occupation of men's thoughts.
The question — How far is this process to go ? — is, in my appre-
hension, the Controverted Question of our time."

The stages in the gradual escape of thinking humanity
from the trammels of authority and dogma are then briefly
traced, and the scientific Naturalism which marks the
close of the last century is shown to be constructive as
well as destructive : —

" But the present incarnation of the spirit of the Renascence
differs from its predecessor in the eighteenth century, in that it
builds up, as well as pulls down. . . .

*' That of which it has laid the foundation, of which it is
already raising the superstructure, is the doctrine of evolution."

Next follows a condensed statement of the great evolu-
tionary truths, to which " all future philosophical and
theological speculations will have to accommodate them-
selves," and the Prologue ends with an appreciation of
the Bible, regarded as a collection of historical and literary
documents : —

" It appears to me that if there is anybody more objectionable
than the orthodox Bibliolater, it is the heterodox Philistine, who

230 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

can discover in a literature which, in some respects, has no
superior, notliing but a subject for scoffing and an occasion for
the display of his conceited ignorance of the debt he owes to
former generations."

The plea advanced many years before {if. p. 102) for
the use of the Bible in schools is repeated, and stress is
laid, "... upon the necessity of placing such instruction
in lay hands." Finally the part played by the Bible in
history is eloquently set forth : —

" I may add yet another claim of the Bible to the respect and
the attention of a democratic age. Throughout the history of
the western world, the Scriptures, Jewish and Christian, have
been the great instigators against the worst forms of clerical and
political despotism. The Bible has been the Magna Charta of
the poor and of the oppressed ; down to modern times, no State
has had a constitution in which the interests of the people are so
largely taken into account, in which the duties, so much more
than the privileges, of rulers, are insisted upon, as that drawn up
for Israel in Deuteronomy and in Leviticus ; nowhere is the
fundamental truth that the welfare of the State, in the long run,
depends on the uprightness of the citizen, so strongly laid down.
Assuredly, the Bible talks no trash about the rights of man ;
but it insists on the equality of duties, on the liberty to bring
about that righteousness which is somewhat different from
struggling for ' rights ' ; on the fraternity of taking thought for
one's neighbour as for one's self.

" So far as such equality, liberty, and fraternity, are included
under the democratic principles which assume the same names,
the Bible is the most democratic book in the world. As such it
began, through the heretical sects, to undermine the clerico-
political despotism of the Middle Ages, almost as soon as it was
formed, in the eleventh century ; pope and king had as much as
they could do to put down the Albigenses and the Waldenses in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; the Lollards and the
Hussites gave them still more trouble in the fourteenth and
fifteenth ; from the sixteenth century onward, the Protestant
sects have favoured political freedom in proportion to the degree
in which they have refused to acknowledge any ultimate authority
save that of the Bible.

AN APOLOGETIC IRENICON 231

" But the enormous influence which has thus been exerted by
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures has had no necessary con-
nection with cosmogonies, demonologies, and miraculous inter-
ferences. Their strength lies in their appeals, not to the reason,
but to the ethical sense. I do not say that even the highest
biblical ideal is exclusive of others or needs no supplement. But
I do believe that the human race is not yet, possibly may never
be, in a position to dispense with it."

The inclusion of the essay on *' Agnosticism " in Con-
troverted Questions led Mr. Frederic Harrison, in a friendly
article contributed to the Fortnightly Review, to object to
the identification of his views with those of Comte.
Huxley's reply, " An Apologetic Irenicon," appeared in
the November number of the same periodical, and in this
he objects to agnosticism being considered a mere pre-
liminary to positivism. He disclaims any intention of
setting up as an instructor of the human race, and meets
the reproach that his utterances had been negative in kind
by pointing out the necessity for destructive criticism, the
work of clearing the ground, at the same time adding : —

" I venture to count it an improbable suggestion that any such
person — a man, let us say, who has well-nigh reached his three-
score years and ten, and has graduated in all the faculties of
human relationships ; who has taken his share in all the deep
joys and deeper anxieties which cling about them ; who has felt
the burden of young lives entrusted to his care, and has stood
alone with his dead before the abyss of the eternal — has never
had a thought beyond negative criticism. It seems to me in-
credible that such an one can have done his day's work, always
with a light heart, with no sense of responsibility, no terror of
that which may appear when the factitious veil of Jsis — the
thick web of fiction man has woven round nature — is stripped
off."

A good deal of the article is in some sort anticipatory
of the matter included in the Romanes Lecture on
" Evolution and Ethics," delivered the following year.

232 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

During 1892, too, the first volume of Huxley's Collected
Essays appeared in the " Eversley Series," under the name
of Method and Results, and this included, like all its
successors, a special Preface.

The necessity for establishing a teaching University
for London was now becoming a pressing question, and
there can be no doubt that the University of London, as
now modified, owes very much to his energy and sound
judgment. For one thing, as Professor Karl Pearson
says : —

" . . . . Professor Huxley's leadership did, at any rate, a
great deal to unite the London teachers, and raise their ideal of
a true university, while at the same time helping to repress the
self-interests of many persons and institutions which had been
before very much to the front " (Life, ii, p. 314).

Huxley's ideal is expressed in a letter to Professor Ray
Lankester (dated April 11, 1892): —

" The mediaeval university looked backwards ; it professed to
be a storehouse of old knowledge, and except in the way of
dialectic cobweb-spinning, its professors had nothing to do with
novelties. Of the historical and physical (natural) sciences, of
criticism and laboratory practice, it knew nothing. Oral teach-
ing was of supreme importance on account of the cost and rarity
of manuscripts.

<* The modern university looks forward : its professors have
to be at the top of the wave of progress. Research and criticism
must be the breath of their nostrils ; laboratory work the main
business of the scientific student ; books his main helpers.

" The lecture, however, in the hands of an able man will still
have the utmost importance in stimulating and giving facts and
principles their proper relative prominence" (Life, ii, p. 309).

The advantages of Oxford and Cambridge, and one
advance made by them in the " modern " direction, are
indicated in a letter to Mr. Briton Riviere : —

" . . . .in the way of practical advantage in any career, there

EDUCATION AND THE STATE 233

is a great deal to be said for sending a clever boy to Oxford or
Cambridge. There are not only the exhibitions and scholarships,
but there is the rubbing shoulders with the coming generation,
which puts a man in touch with his contemporaries as hardly
anything else can do. A very good scientific education is to be
had at both Cambridge and Oxford, especially Cambridge now "
(Life, ii, 318).

The relation of the State to both elementary and inter-
mediate education is discussed in a letter to Sir John
Donnelly (dated October i, 1892) : —

" As to intermediate education, I have never favoured the
notion of State intervention in this direction.

" I think there are only two valid grounds for State meddling
with education : the one the danger to the community which
arises from dense ignorance ; the other the advantage to the
community of giving capable men the chance of utilizing their
capacity.

" The first furnishes the justification for compulsory elementary
education. If a child is taught reading, writing, drawing, and
handiwork of some kind ; the elements of mathematics, physics,
and history, and I should add of political economy and geo-
graphy, books will furnish him with everything he can
possibly need to make him a competent citizen in any rank
of life.

" If with such a start, he has not the capacity to get all he
needs out of books, let him stop where he is. Blow him up
with intermediate education as much as you like, you will only
do the fellow a mischief and lift him into a place for which he
has no real qualification. People never will recollect, that mere
learning and mere cleverness are of next to no value in life, while
energy and intellectual grip, the things that are inborn and cannot
be taught, are everything. . . .

*' I quite agree with you, therefore, that it will play the deuce
if intermediate education is fossilized as it would be by any Act
prepared under present influences. The most I should like to
see done, would be to help the youth of special literary,
linguistic and so forth, capacity, to get the best training in their
special line" (Life, ii, pp. 319-20).

234 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

1893.

The Romanes Lecture on " Evolution and Ethics,"
delivered by Huxley at Oxford on May 18, was the chief
event for 1893. Unfortunately, as a sequel to influenza,
his voice was far from strong, and a good deal was
inaudible to many of the large audience assembled in the
Sheldonian theatre. As all reference to politics or religion
was forbidden, the difficulties of dealing with such a
subject was greatly increased.

In this address the "evolution of ethics" is followed
step by step, and stress is laid upon the essential
antagonism between the processes involved in ordinary
evolutionary progress on the one hand, and social progress,
with its altruistic obligations, on the other : —

" Men in society are undoubtedly subject to the cosmic pro-
cess. As among other animals, multiplication goes on without
cessation, and involves severe competition for the means of sup-
port. The struggle for existence tends to eliminate those less
fitted to adapt themselves to the circumstances 01 their existence.
The strongest, the most self-assertive, tend to tread down the
weaker. But the influence of the cosmic process on the evolu-
tion of society is the greater the more rudimentary its civilization.
Social progress means a checking of the cosmic process at every
step, and the substitution for it of another, which may be called
the ethical process ; the end of which is not the survival of those
who may happen to be the fittest, in respect of the whole of the
conditions which may obtain, but of those who are ethically the
best."

This lecture which, printed as a pamphlet, had a very
wide circulation, gave rise to an extraordinary amount of
misapprehension, and many seemed to think that Huxley
had entirely altered his views as regards evolution, ethics,
and even theology. In order to show the groundless
nature of such ideas, and also to supplement utterances
made under somewhat cramping limitations, a " Pro-

EVOLUTION OF ETHICS 235

legomena" was added the following year to the reprint
of the lecture included in Vol. IX. of the Collected
Essays (p. i), and this is longer than the lecture itself.
Its final paragraph runs : —

" That which lies before the human race is a constant struggle
to maintain and improve, in opposition to the State of Nature,
the State of Art of an organized polity ; in which, and by
which, man may develop a worthy civilization, capable of main-
taining and constantly improving itself, until thie evolution of the
globe shall have entered so far upon its downward course that
the cosmic process resumes its sway ; and, once more, the State
of Nature prevails over the surface of our planet."

A month at Maloja in the summer went far to remove
the after effect of influenza. In the course of numerous
visits Huxley had become the centre of a circle of warm
friends and admirers, who afterwards caused a block of
granite to be placed as a memorial by the side of one of
his favourite walks, with the following inscription : —

" In memory of the illustrious English Writer and Naturalist,
Thomas Henry Huxley, who spent many summers at the
Kursaal, Maloja."

The happiness of the year was later on marred by the
deaths of three intimate friends. Sir Andrew Clark,
Jowett, and Tyndall, and the complete breakdown in
health of Romanes. The loss of Tyndall, more a brother
than a friend, was felt with singular acuteness. Huxley
attended the funeral at Haslemere on December 9, and
wrote an appreciation for the Nitieteenth Century.

Before leaving 1893, it must be noticed that the work
of the year included editing and writing prefaces to
Vols. II. III. IV. and V. of the Collected Essays, respec-
tively entitled — Dar^uiniana, Science and Education, Science
and Hebrew Tradition, and Science and Christian Tradition.

236 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Other labours, not destined to be accomplished, were

also in contemplation, especially a full consideration of

post-Darwinian speculation, and a series of Working-
Men's Lectures on the Bible.

1894.

Huxley attended the British Association in August,
held this year at Oxford, the presidential address being
given by Lord Salisbury, Chancellor of the University.
A very special interest naturally attached to the occasion,
seeing that the last meeting held in the same centre was
in i860, when the then Bishop of Oxford so fiercely
attacked the theory of evolution. As Huxley himself
says, in a letter to Professor Lewis Campbell (dated
August 18, 1894) • —

" It was very curious to me to sit there and hear the
Chancellor of the University accept, as a matter of course, the
doctrines for which the Bishop of Oxford coarsely anathematized
us thirty-four years earlier. E pur si muove^^ (Life, ii, p. 379).

Lord Salisbury's address, however, was far from being
satisfactory in some respects, and implied that post-
Darwinian speculation rendered the theory of evolution
of problematic validity. Huxley's particular task was to
second the vote of thanks proposed by Lord Kelvin, and
how this was done is described by Professor Henry F.
Osborn (an old pupil), in his Memorial Tribute to Thomas
H. Huxley (Trans. Acad. Soc, New York, xv) : —

" His situation was an unenviable one. He had to thank an
ex-Prime Minister of England and present Chancellor of Oxford
University for an address, the sentiments of which were directly
against those he himself had been maintaining for twenty-five
years. . . . Lord Kelvin (Sir William Thomson) one of the
most distinguished living physicists, first moved the vote of

DARWIN MEDALLIST 237

thanks, but his reception was nothing to the tremendous applause
which greeted Huxley in the heart of that University whose
cardinal principles he had so long been opposing. Considerable
anxiety had been felt by his friends lest his voice should fail to
fill the theatre, for it had signally failed during his Romanes
Lecture delivered in Oxford the year before, but when Huxley
arose, he reminded you of a venerable gladiator returning to the
arena after years of absence. He raised his figure and his voice
to its full height, and, with one foot turned over the edge of the
step, veiled an unmistakable and vigorous protest in the most
gracious and dignified speech of thanks."

The criticism of the President's address is embodied
in a leader, " Past and Present," appearing in Nature
(November I, 1894), on the occasion of the semi-jubilee
of that periodical's foundation. Huxley also attended
and spoke at the Nature Dinner, arranged in celebration
of the anniversary.

Some time after the death of Darwin a fund had been
raised, from which a "Darwin Medal" was biennially
awarded by the Royal Society in recognition of biological
research. Alfred Russel Wallace was the first recipient,
and J. D. Hooker the second. This year the third
medal was awarded to Huxley, *' for his researches in
biology and his long association with Charles Darwin."
Although after the second medal had been given to
Hooker, he had expressed a strong opinion to the
officials of the Royal Society that in future younger
men should be honoured, and not " useless old extinct
volcanoes," the appreciation gave great pleasure both to
him and his wife, much enhanced by the association in-
volved with the joint discoverer of Natural Selection and
the chief botanical supporter of Darwinism. His speech
on the subject at the Royal Society Anniversary Dinner
was a fine piece of oratory, full of vigour and virility,
and giving no hint of the end that was so immi-

238 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

nent. The following extracts are taken from the Titnes
report : —

" It is forty-three years ago this day since the Royal Society
did me the honour to award me a Royal Medal, and thereby
determined my career. But, having long retired into the position
of a veteran, I confess that I was extremely astonished — I
honestly also say that I was extremely pleased — to receive the
announcement that you have been good enough to award to me
the Darwin Medal. ... In reflecting upon what had been my
own share in what are now very largely ancient transactions, it
was perfectly obvious to me that 1 had no such claims as those
of Mr. Wallace. It was perfectly clear to me that I had no
such claims as those of my life-long friend. Sir Joseph Hooker,
who for twenty-five years placed all his great sources of know-
ledge, his sagacity, his industry, at the disposition of his friend
Darwin. And really, I begin to despair of what possible answer
could be given to the critics whom the Royal Society, meeting
as it does on November 30, has lately been very apt to hear
about on December i. Naturally there occurred to my mind
that famous and comfortable line, which I suppose has helped so
many people under like circumstances, ' They also serve who
only stand and wait.' I am bound to confess that the standing
and waiting, so far as I am concerned, to which I refer, has
been of a somewhat peculiar character."

Here follows the story of the Quaker who only con-
sented "to stand and wait" at the gangway, when a
merchant ship was attacked by pirates, using the sharp
end of his pike with the remark, " Friend, keep on board
thine own ship." Huxley interprets his " standing and
waiting " in defence of the Origin of Species as having been
conducted on the same principle : —

" ... I am sincerely of the opinion that the views which
were propounded by Mr. Darwin thirty-four years ago may be
understood hereafter as constituting an epoch in the intellectual
history of the human race. They will modify the whole system
of our thought and opinion, our most intimate convictions. But
I do not know — I do not think anybody knows — whether the

SIR RICHARD OWEN 239

particular views which he held will be hereafter fortified by the
experience of the ages which come after us ; but of this thing I
am perfectly certain, that the present course of things has resulted
from the feeling of the smaller men who have followed him that
they are incompetent to bend the bow of Ulysses, and in con-
sequence many of them are seeking their salvation in mere
speculation."

A further quotation from the speech, summarizing
Darwin's character and methods, has elsewhere been
given {cf.ip. 165).

The literary work for 1894 includes, in addition to the
" Prolegomena" to the reprint of the Romanes Lecture
{cf. p. 234), the Prefaces to Vols. VI-IX of the Collected
Essays, respectively entitled — Hume, with Helps to the Study
of Berkeley ; Man's Place in Nature ; Discourses, Biological
and Geological; and Evolution and Ethics, and other Essays.

It is of incidental interest to learn that, as might have
been expected in so brilliant a writer, his admiration of
German scientists does not extend to their average style.
For in a letter to Mr. Thomas Common (dated March 23,
1894) he says : —

" As men of research in positive science they are magnificently
laborious and accurate. But most of them have no notion of
style, and seem to compose their books with a pitchfork "
(Life, ii, p. 360).

He also accomplished the difficult and delicate task of
writing, at the request of the author, a chapter on
" Owen's Position in Anatomical Science," in the Life of
Sir Richard Owen, by his grandson, the Rev. Richard
Owen (Sci. Mem., iv, xxxviii, p. 658).

This does full justice to the many and valuable con-
tributions to science made by Owen, more particularly in
comparative anatomy and palaeontology : —

" It is a splendid record ; enough, and more than enough, to

240 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

justify the high place in the scientific world which Owen so
long occupied. If I mistake not, the historian of comparative
anatomy and of paleontology will always assign to Owen a
place next to, and hardly lower than, that of Cuvier, who was
practically the creator of those sciences in their modern shape ;
and whose works must always remain models of excellence in
their kind. . . ."

Owen's contributions to "philosophical anatomy "are
shown to be of far less value, though even here it is high
praise to say : —

"The theory of the continuity of germ-plasm of Weismann,
for example, is practically the same as Owen's, if we omit from
the latter the notion that the endowment with ' spermatic force '
is the indispensable condition of proliferation."

The sketch of the history of anatomical science given
in this chapter is of absorbing interest, and many
passages are striking on account of the ideas contained,
or their beauty of style, or both. Thus, of flowers : —

" Flowers are the primers of the morphologist ; those who
run may read in them uniformity of type amidst endless diversity,
singleness of plan with complex multiplicity of detail. As a
musician might say, every natural group of flowering plants is a
sort of visible fugue, wandering about a central theme which is
never forsaken, however it may, momentarily, cease to be
apparent."

Of Goethe's character : —

*' Like all the really great men of literature, Goethe added
some of the qualities of the man of science to those of the artist,
especially the habit of careful and patient observation of Nature."

And of those Science needs or does not need : —

" Science has need of servants of very various qualifications ;
of artistic constructors no less than of men of business ; of people
to design her palaces and of others to see that the materials are
sound and well fitted together ; of some to spur investigators

DEATH 241

and of others to keep their heads cool. The only would-be
servants, who are entirely unprofitable, are those who do not
take the trouble to interrogate Nature, but imagine vain things
about her ; and spin, from their inner consciousness, webs, as
exquisitely symmetrical as those of the most geometrical of
spiders, but, alas ! as easily torn to pieces by some unconsidered
bluebottle of a fact."

1895.

Huxley's last work partly had reference to the question
of a University for London, and partly consisted of a
review on Mr. A. J. Balfour's book on the Foundations of
Belief. Of this the first half, " Mr. Balfour's Attack on
Agnosticism," appeared in the Nineteenth Century for
March, but his last illness prevented completion of the
second part.

Influenza and bronchitis attacked him in March, the
unusually severe winter emphasizing their effect.
Although successfully thrown off, as such, they led to
heart trouble and other complications, which ultimately
proved fatal on June 29. The funeral took place at
Finchley, on July 4, and the reading of the service by
Mr. Llewellyn Davies constituted the only ceremony.
In accordance with his expressed desire, three lines from
a poem by his wife were added to the formal inscription
on the tombstone : —

*' Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep ;
For still He giveth His beloved sleep,
And if an endless sleep He wills, so best."

CHAPTER XXI

CHARACTER AND POSITION AMONG CONTEMPORARIES

The many-sided character of Huxley's work renders it
singularly difficult to form a just conception of his position
among the great men of his day, and the estimate must
necessarily differ according to the point of view. Only
a symposium of specialists could do him full justice, but
as many competent authorities of different kind have
expressed their opinions, it will be possible by quoting
from some of them to do something by way of correlation.
As to personal characteristics, much will have been
gathered from the preceding chapters, in which, so far as
possible, Huxley has been made to speak for himself.
The following portrait by the Hon. George C. Brodrick,
late Warden of Merton College, Oxford, sketches the
more salient features in an admirable way : —

" To me his whole nature, intellectual and moral, presented a
singular unity ; both elements appeared to be in perfect harmony
with each other, and the distinctive note of both was the com-
bination of strength with simplicity. From this source was
derived the manly dignity of his bearing, the uncompromising
directness of his thought, and the enviable lucidity of his style.
No subtle analysis is needed to explain his character, the beauty
of which consisted in being completely natural, and much that
he says of David Hume, in one of his essays, might be applied
with equal justice to himself. He possessed in a high degree
that rare but open secret to which General Gordon owed so
much of his marvellous influence ; he was always himself, the
same to young and to old, to rich and to poor, to men and to
women, and had his lot been cast like Gordon's in Asia or in

242

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 243

Africa, he would doubtless have been the same to Orientals as
to Europeans. He was frank, because he was fearless; he
inspired confidence because he was evidently a true-hearted man ;
his native self-respect was set off by a respectful manner towards
others ; his intolerance of sophistry sometimes betrayed him into
undue vehemence in controversial writing, but there was no
pettiness in his odium sclentificum, and a pure love of truth shone
through all his most trenchant diatribes, political or theological.
As I shared most of his convictions on politics, we talked over
such questions without reserve, but I forbore, and never had
occasion, to discuss with him questions concerning religious
doctrine. I have, therefore, no right to speak from personal
knowledge of his attitude towards them. I cannot doubt, how-
ever, that whatever his creed, his inner life was that of a good
Christian, and that his hopes went beyond his beliefs, though he
was too honest to mistake hopes for beliefs or beliefs for demon-
strations. Assuredly, with all his apparent leaning to materialism,
and rigorous avoidance of sentiment in reasoning, he inherited
and even cultivated the precious gift of philosophical imagination.
Of him, as truly as of Lyell, it might be said, in the picturesque
language of Dean Stanley, that he chose for himself, and courage-
ously pursued, that perilous and lofty path which the vulture's
eye has not seen nor the lion's whelp hath trodden — the path
which leads upward from ascertained facts and inferences mis-
called ' laws,' into the sublimer regions of speculation, where the
mysteries of Theology, Metaphysics, and Natural Science mingle
and lose themselves, it may be, in the dim confessions of
Agnosticism, or, it may be, in the dim aspirations of faith "
(" Professor Huxley : Personal Reminiscences," Fortnightly
Review, New Ser., Iviii, 1895, p. 310).

A still more intimate portrayal is given by Sir Michael
Foster in the concluding paragraph of an obituary
notice : —

"... those who had the happiness to come near him knew
that besides science and philosophy there was room in him for
yet many other things ; they forgot the learned investigator, the
wise man of action, and the fearless combatant as they listened
to him talking of letters, of pictures, or of music, always
wondering which delighted them most, the sure thrust with

244 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

which he hit the mark whatever it might be, or the brilliant wit
which flashed around his stroke. And yet one word more.
As an object seen first at a distance changes in aspect to the
looker-on who draws nearer and yet more near, features unseen
afar off filling up the vision close at hand, so he seemed to
change to those who, coming nearer and nearer to him, gained a
happy place within his innermost circle ; his incisive thought,
his wide knowledge, his sure and prompt judgment, his ready
and sharp word, all these shrunk away so as to seem but a small
part of him ; his greater part, and that which most shaped his
life, was seen to be a heart full of love which, clinging round
his family and his friends in tenderest devotion, was spread over
all his fellow-men in kindness guided by justice " (" A Few
More Words on Thomas Henry Huxley," Nature, liii, 1895,
p. 320).

A careful review of Huxley's written works brings
out one very striking point, the comparatively early age
at which intellectual maturity was attained. The direc-
tion of his life's activity and, broadly speaking, his
general attitude towards science and education, were
clearly defined by the time he had secured a foothold in
the scientific world, when an average man would still
have been very largely in the making. And when, in his
closing years, he edited his Collected Essays, surprisingly
little was found to alter. The last period in his life, it
is true, marks an increasing interest in social and ethical
affairs, but this was largely the result of the debarment from
active research which physical disabilities made necessary.
When all those who came under the spell of Huxley's
virile and convincing personality have passed away, when
the controversial matters in which he played so prominent
a part belong to ancient history, his claim to a prominent
position among the great men of the Victorian era will,
in all probability, chiefly depend upon the inestimable
value of his astonishingly numerous contributions to
scientific research. Prof. A. Kowalewsky well remarked,

SCIENTIFIC WORK 245

if a little emphatically, at the International Congress
on Zoology in 1895 : —

" In the person of Huxley, science has sustained a great loss.
We do not know any other investigators of our century who had
the talent of foresight to such an extent as Huxley. It was he
who, properly speaking, founded modern embryology by demon-
strating the homology of the germinal layers of Vertebrates with
the ectoderm and endoderm of Ccelenterates. It was he who
supported Darwin in the publication of the fundamental work on
the origin of species, and it was he who was the fervent pro-
pagator of the views therein contained. The two names of
Darwin and Huxley have built up the story of the scientific
world" (Nature, liii, 1895, p. 651).

Huxley described Sir Richard Owen as one upon
whom the mantle of Cuvier had fallen. He himself may
be considered as the inheritor of the tradition created by
Johannes Muller and Von Baer, the respective founders
of comparative morphology and embryology. And it
may be added that his work assimilates to that of the
former in the keen appreciation of physiology which
gives a living interest to the arid facts of anatomy. His
standpoint in morphology was not merely static but
dynamic. To him an organism was not merely an ex-
quisite piece of machinery, but a machine in motion, an
adaptation to a complicated and changing environment, a
solution to a series of vital problems.

Unfortunately biological experts alone can assess the
value of Huxley's original work, and in a biography in-
tended for the general public it can only be treated in a
very generalized way. On the other hand, his con-
troversial writings, lucid to a degree and full of the
liveliest interest to all, are eminently suitable for quotation.
Hence the danger of a one-sided view as to the place he
occupied, a danger which would be non-existent in the
case of a less versatile man.

246 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

In regard to Huxley's purely scientific research it will
be sufficient to say here that a great deal of it was not
only valuable but epoch-making. He left his mark on
almost every important group of the animal kingdom,
and specialist workers with the most diverse interests
have built and will continue to build on the foundation
he laid. Or rather perhaps the ground-floor, for the
foundations were well and truly laid by his predecessors.

Part of his scientific work, as we have seen, consisted in
important contributions to anthropology, a branch in
which he always took the keenest interest, from the time
when, as a young naval surgeon, he devised an impromptu
waltz with a native of New Guinea, the direction of this
saltatory effort being planned with a view to more detailed
knowledge of the domestic economy of an interesting
primitive people. And if Huxley's reputation depended
merely on his anthropological work, he would be a figure
of no small importance. Professor Tylor gives us an
interesting glimpse of the part he took in the contro-
versial side of this subject :^

" Many who were present still remember with amusement a
scene at the British Association meeting at Exeter, in 1869,
when Anthropology, then represented by a sub-section of biology,
drew dense crowds assembled to hear the anthropologists have
it out with the parsons. A theologico-metaphysical attempt to
sweep away the development-theory before a gale of declamatory
appeal to orthodoxy, backed by the irrefutable combination of
intuition and the evidence of sensation, brought up Huxley.
With calm seriousness he performed the familiar experiment of
touching the tip of his nose with his crossed fingers, inviting his
delighted audience thus to satisfy themselves that each of them
had two noses, unless indeed they were willing to admit that the
systematic comparison of observations, which is called science,
had something to do with the formation of a reasonable judgment "
(" Professor Huxley as Anthropologist," Fortnightly Review,
New Ser., Iviii, 1895, pp. 31 1-2).

SUPPORT OF DARWINISM 247

The advancement of the theory of Natural Selection
by Darwin and Wallace had a momentous influence on
Huxley's career, and greatly modified the character of
his scientific work. Enough on this subject has else-
where been said, though emphasis must be laid on the
altogether disinterested and non-partizan character of his
support. The matter is thus summarized by Prof.
Ernst Haeckel, who in some respects played the same
part in Germany as regards evolution that Huxley did in
England : —

" Thomas Huxley belonged to that small number of far-seeing
naturalists who, from the very beginning, saw the epoch-making
import of Darwin's work of research carried on through fifty
years, and who with unselfish devotion worked out the detailed
application of his theories and aided their application. The
pre-requisites for such work were not only an extensive and
thorough knowledge in all fields of biology and a clear sagacity
of judgment, but also that moral courage which, regardless of
consequences, assails a ' mountain of prejudices ' many thousand
thousand years old, and seeks truth for its own sake. As long
as Darwin lives as a reformer in the history of biology, so long
will Huxley be celebrated as one of his most faithful friends and
most successful fellow-workers" ("Thomas Huxley and Karl
Vogt," Fortnightly Review, New Ser., Iviii, 1895, p. 469).

It is however noticeable that though Huxley's re-
searches greatly strengthened the foundations of Dar-
winism, especially on the palaeontological side, he can
scarcely be said to have made any contributions to the
theory of evolution, unless his views on homotaxis may
be regarded as such. But, after all, this is not remarkable.
Considering that his character was fully formed, and no
mean share of his original work accomplished before the
publication of the Origin of Species^ it is astonishing, and
reflects the greatest credit on his insight and judicial
power, that the rest of his career should be so profoundly

248 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

influenced by the new doctrines. He may be regarded
as a Darwinian who, without ceasing to carry on the
tradition created by Johannes Miiller and Von Baer, sub-
jected it to the vivifying influence of evolutionary theory.

Only second to his work as a professional scientist and
champion of Darwinism, come Huxley's manifold labours
in the cause of education. The methods adopted in
modern biological teaching are based on his, which
initiated a new epoch and replaced much that was
desultory and superficial. As a professor, his lectures
were ideal, and had his many duties permitted him to
give more of his own time to laboratory supervision, his
fame as a teacher would have been even greater.

It has often been regretted that his many-sided activities
absorbed the energy that would have enabled him to
found a school of scientific workers, actively engaged in
original research, as such a man would have assuredly
done in such a country as Germany. But this was not
to be ; there were other things to be done that he deemed
of greater importance, and for which he appears to have
cared more. Considering that he himself was an investi-
gator of unrivalled keenness and ability, this would seem
a little singular. It is however certain that surprisingly
few of his many pupils have attained even to moderate
distinction. But to this it must be added that the system
adopted in the Royal College of Science did not lend
itself to the making of specialists, besides which so many
of his students were scarcely the right material for such
a purpose. Had Huxley been an University professor, the
results of his teaching would probably have been very
difl^ierent. It would be difficult, however, to overestimate
the results of his methods.

His influence on elementary education was immense,
and secondary instruction is also greatly indebted to him.

EDUCATIONAL WORK 249

Nor must we forget his labours in the cause of medical
and technical education. In all cases his attention was
primarily directed to main principles, details came after-
wards. And though he warmly and successfully advocated
the claims of natural science, he was fully alive to those
of other studies, and to the importance of proportion and
perspective in every educational scheme. The systems
of these later days would be greatly improved by a strong
infusion of that wisdom for which Huxley was pre-
eminent.

As a popular lecturer he did much to disseminate a
knowledge of and create an interest in biological science
among lay audiences, and the high level he attained in
such efforts was partly the result of taking them seriously.
Eloquence was associated with lucidity and strict scientific
accuracy with imagination. The American Addresses were
perhaps the most notable of such utterances. The
numerous courses of lectures to working-men were
masterpieces of their kind, and gave him as much pleasure
in the delivery as the audience in the hearing. Nor is
this surprising, for during the whole of his career his
warmest sympathies were with the working-classes, an
attitude known and appreciated by them. This is well
illustrated by an anecdote narrated by the late Prof.
Mivart : —

"I recollect going with him and Mr. John Westlake, Q.C.,
to a meeting of artizans in the Blackfriars Road, to whom he
gave a friendly address. He felt a strong interest in working-
men, and was much beloved by them. On one occasion, having
taken a cab home, on his arrival there, when he held out his fare
to the cabman, the latter replied, ' Oh no, Professor, I have had
too much pleasure and profit from hearing you lecture to take
any money from your pocket — proud to have driven you, sir "
(" Reminiscences of T. H. Huxley," Nineteenth Century,
December 1897).

250 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

Another striking incident is recounted by Mr. Raymond
Blaythwayt : —

" Only to-day I had a most striking instance of sentiment
come beneath my notice, I was about to enter my house, when
a plain, simply-dressed working-man came up to me with a note
in his hand, and touching his hat, he said, ' I think this is for
you, sir,' and then he added, ' Will you give me the envelope,
sir, as a great favour ? ' I looked at it, and seeing it bore the
signature of Professor Huxley, I replied, ' Certainly I will ; but
why do you ask me for it ? ' * Well,' said he, ' it's got Pro-
fessor Huxley's signature, and it will be something for me to
show my mates and keep for my children. He have done me
and my like a lot of good ; no man more ' " (" The Uses of
Sentiment," Pall Mall Gazette, September 20, 1892).

In summing up the good work done by Huxley for the
cause of science, it must not be forgotten that besides
being an investigator, teacher, lecturer, and writer, he
also contributed to the advancement of Fisheries in his
capacity as an inspector, and discharged a long series of
arduous duties as a member of numerous Royal and other
Commissions.

It is obvious that as a thinker Huxley was profoundly
influenced by some of the great philosophers in whose
writings he was so deeply read. On this point Mr.
George W. Smalley says : —

" In truth he was a very expert metaphysician, with an extra-
ordinary knowledge of the literature of metaphysics and phil-
osophy. . . . Huxley was a student, and more than a student
of Descartes. He has written the best short book in existence
on Hume. He was a pupil of Aristode, and therefore not a
Platonist. Hobbes taught him much ; Berkeley was to him a
great thinker ; Locke, Butler, and the short list of really great
names in English philosophy were all his familiars, while among
the great Germans there was, I think, none whom he did not
know well — Kant, Hegel, Fichte, and all that illustrious line,
not excepting Schopenhauer" (Scribner's Magazine, October
1895).

POSITION IN PHILOSOPHY 251

In an analysis of Huxley's philosophical position, Mr.
W. L. Courtney has some interesting things to say
(" Professor Huxley as Philosopher," Fortnightly Review,
New Sen, Iviii, 1895, p. 317). His earlier and later
writings are compared, and the conclusion reached that in
the final period of his life, —

"... his large, cultivated, and sympathetic mind could
appreciate problems removed from the mental discipline of his
earlier years."

And finally : —

" It may, or may not be, more convenient and helpful to repre-
sent everything in accordance with a materialistic notation, from
the point of view of the progress of knowledge, but what are we
to do when the data of our science utterly refuse to be thus
represented ? How can the man who combats the cosmic pro-
cess, and carves out for himself a moral code in the teeth of all
that nature tells him, be represented by merely materialistic
formulae ? When Kant wrote the Critique of Pure Reason, he
was, if we like to phrase it so, an Agnostic ; but he added the
Critique of the Practical Reason, in which the problems of the
understanding were resolved by the reason. Is it possible that,
if Professor Huxley had carried out to their logical development
the thoughts involved in his Romanes Lecture, he, too, would
have supplemented, let us say, The Physical Basis of Life, by an
ethical theory, reposing on very different foundations ? "

Prof. Ernst Haeckel (op, cit.) acknowledges the debt
which monistic philosophy owes to Huxley, and also
speaks of his work in regard to the evolution of
ethics : —

" Of high interest are the researches which Huxley, as
' practical philosopher,' made in the relationship of the modern
doctrine of evolution to the great social and political problems of
our age. Partly he here arrives at entirely different conclusions
from those of his old friend, the famous 'Darwinian philosopher,'
Mr. Herbert Spencer. A short time ago Dr. Alexander Tille,

2 52 THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY

in his excellent book on evolutional ethics [Von Darivin bis
Nietzsche, Leipzig, 1895), showed that Huxley's merits in
treating evolutional ethics are principally of a negative kind. Of
all the champions in this field Huxley has the most unflinchingly
exposed and the most pungently criticised the current a priori
assumptions of ethical speculation. In two excellent essays on
the ' Natural Inequality of Men,' and on ' Natural and Political
Rights,' he broke to pieces the favourite doctrine of Rousseauism
and socialism — the equality of all men and the belief in inborn
' natural rights,' and dethroned and crushed the state ideal of that
political school. With pitiless logic he proved that the alleged
facts on which that school bases its doctrines are no facts at all,
but wild speculations. Huxley arrives thus at the conclusion,
that the aims of current morality cannot, as Spencer thought they
could, be reached by the natural medium of competition."

Of Huxley's contributions to critical theology, highly
controversial for the most part, as he himself regretfully
admitted, enough has elsewhere been said. Here and
there they are perhaps a little too strongly illuminated by
flashes of withering wit and biting sarcasm, and he would
seem to have underrated the capacity of some of his
opponents, Mr. Gladstone more particularly. The
''scratches" he inflicted were sometimes more serious
than " flesh wounds." But his unsurpassable powers of
debate, and his thorough knowledge of authorities, gave
him in all cases an undeniable advantage. And we
largely owe to him in this country that freedom of speech
in matters theological without which progress would be
indefinitely postponed.

The work of Huxley's life, carried on with unflagging
zeal and undiminished powers almost to the day of his
death, is a symmetrical and finished whole. Beginning
with primeval protoplasm, the " physical basis of life," it
ranges through the long perspectives of the animal kingdom
to man as the noblest outcome of organic evolution. To
man as an individual, to thinking man as a member of

UNIQUE POSITION 253

an organized society, and to man as " Nature's rebel,"
with deeply implanted ethical and religious sentiments,
waging continual war against the stern realities of the
cosmic process.

Huxley's researches as a comparative anatomist and
embryologist would alone entitle him to a conspicuous
place among his contemporaries. And when to this we
add his championship of evolution, his labours in the cause
of education, his contributions to sociology and ethics, he
stands, an unique figure, among those who brought
about that Scientific Renascence for which the Nineteenth
Century will be memorable as long as the human race
endures.

APPENDIX

(A.) CHIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

1. Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, by his son,

Leonard Huxley. Two volumes. Macmillan & Co.,
1900.

2. The Scientific Memoirs of Thomas Henry Huxley. Mac-

millan & Co. Memorial Edition, edited by Prof. Sir
Michael Foster and Prof. E. Ray Lankester. Vol. I,
1898. Vol. II, 1899. Vol. Ill, I901. Vol. IV,
1902. Supplementary Vol., 1903.

3. Published works as given in subjoined list (B.)

4. Life and Letters of Charles Darwin^ edited by his son,

Francis Darwin. Three volumes. John Murray, 1887.

5. Royal Society Obituary Notice, by Prof. Sir Michael

Foster (Proc. Roy. Soc. lix, 1895-6, pp. xlvi-lxvi).

6. '< Thomas Henry Huxley" (Nature, Hi, 1895, pp.

226-9).

7. "Funeral of Professor Huxley " (op. cit., pp. 24-89).

8. '*A Few More Words on Thomas Henry Huxley," by

Prof. Sir Michael Foster (op. cit., pp. 318-20).

9. " Thomas Henry Huxley," note of speech by Prof.

Kowalewsky at the International Zoological Congress
(op. cit., p. 651).

10. "Professor Huxley." I. Personal Reminiscences, by the

Hon. G. C. Brodrick. II. As Anthropologist, by
Prof. E. B. Tylor. III. As Biologist, by "A Student
of Science." IV. As Philosopher, by W. L. Courtney
(Fortnightly Review, Iviii, New Ser., 1895, pp. 308-
22).

11. "Thomas Huxley and Karl Vogt," by Prof. Ernst

Haeckel (op. cit., pp. 464-9).

12. "Reminiscences of T. H. Huxley," by Prof. Mivart

(Nineteenth Century, December 1897).

25s

256 APPENDIX

13. "The Uses of Sentiment," by Raymond Blaythwayt

(Pall Mall Gazette, September 20, 1892).

14. *' Reminiscences of Prof. Huxley," by G. W. Smalley

(Scribner's Magazine, October 1895).

15. " Memorial Tribute to Thomas H. Huxley," by Prof.

H. F. Osborne (Trans. Acad. Soc, New York, xv,
1895).

16. " Reminiscences of Thomas H. Huxley," by Sir W. H.

Flower (North American Review, 1895),

17. "Thomas Henry Huxley," by Prof. O. C. Marsh (Amer.

J. Sci., 1895).

1 8. " The Bishop of Ripon on Huxley and Science " (Nature,

liv, 1896, pp. 31-2).

19. Thomas Henry Huxley : a Sketch of his Life and PForky by

P. Chalmers Mitchell, 1900.

20. Thomas Henry Huxley, by Edward Clodd. In " Modern

English Writers " Series. William Blackwood &
Sons, 1902.

21. Huxley, by Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer (Ency. Brit., 9th

edn., xxix (Supply. Vol.), 1902).
A full list of obituary notices and reminiscences will be
found in Poole's " Index to Periodical Literature," Third
Supplement, 1892-6; Fourth Supplement, 1897-1902.

(B.) LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS

Chronologically arranged, so far as years are concerned.
Dates when papers were received and read given when neces-
sary to determine order. page

1. "On a Hitherto Undescribed Structure in the

Human Hair-sheath " (London Medical Gazette,
July, 1845. Sci. Mem., i, i, p. i) . . . 5

2. " Examination of the Corpuscles of the Blood of

Amphioxus lanceolatus " (Brit. Assoc. Rep.,
1847, Part 2, p. 95. Sci. Mem., i. 11, p. 4) . 7

3. " Description of the Animal of Trigonia, from

Actual Dissection " (Proc. Zool. Soc, xvii, 1849 5
Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., v, 1850. Sci.
Mem., i. III, p. 6) . . . . . . 8

APPENDIX 257

4. " Anatomy of Physalia " (Short notice in Proc. page

Linn. Soc, 1849. Complete "Memoir on
Physalia," op. cit., ii, 1855, pp. 3-5. Sci.
Mem., i, xxxvi, p. 361) ..... 9

5. " On the Anatomy of Diphyes, and on the Unity of

Composition of the Diphyidje and Physophoridae,
etc." (Brief notice in Proc. Linn. Soc, 1849.
Complete Memoir, op. cit., ii, 1855, pp. 67-9.
Sci. Mem., i, xxxvii, p. 363) .... 9

6. " On the Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family

of the Medusae" (Phil. Trans. Roy, Soc, 1849,

Part 2, p. 413. Sci. Mem., i, iv, p. 9) . . 9

7. "Notes on Meduss and Polypes" (Annals and

Mag. Nat. Hist., vi, 1850, pp. 6-7. Sci. Mem.,

i, V, p. 33) . . . . . . . 9

8. " Observations sur la Circulation du Sang chez les

Mollusques, des Genres Firole et Atlante"
(Ann. des Sci. Nat., xiv, 1850, pp. 193-5. '^'^^•
Mem., i, VI, p. 36) . . . . . .12

9. " Ueber die Sexualorgane der Diphyidae und

Physophoridae" (Miiller's Archiv., 1851, pp.
380-4. Sci. Mem., i, xiv, p. 122) ... 9

10. "Zoological Notes and Observations made on

board H.M.S. Rattlesnake during the years 1846-
50." This deals with Thalassicola, Tethya and
the Auditory Organs of Crustacea (Annals and
Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, vii, 185 1, pp. 304-6,
viii, 185 1, pp. 433-42. Sci. Mem,, i, ix, p. 80) 11-2

11. "Observations on the Genus Sagitta" (Brit.

Assoc. Rep., 185 1, Part 2, pp. 77-8. Sci.
Mem., i, x, p. 96). ...... 12-3

12. "An Account of Researches into the Anatomy of

the Hydrostatic Acalephae " (op. cit., pp. 78-
80. Sci. Mem., i, xi, p. 98).

13. "Description of a New Form of Sponge-like

Animal " (op. cit., p. 80. Sci. Mem., i, xii,
p. 102).

14. "Observations upon the Anatomy and Physiology

of Salpa and Pyrosoma " (Phil. Trans. Roy.
Soc, 1851, Part 2, pp. 567-94; Annals and

258 APPENDIX

Mag. Nat, Hist., ix, 1852, pp. 242-4. Sci. page
Mem., i, vn, p. 38) ...... 13

1 5. " Remarks upon Appcndicularia and Doliolum, two

Genera of the Tunicata " (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc,
185 1, Part 2, pp. 595-606. Sci. Mem., i, viii,
p. 69) . . . . . . . .13

16. "Report upon the Researches of Prof. Miiller

into the Anatomy and Development of the
Echinoderms" (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist.,
Ser. 2, viii, 185 i, pp. 1-19. Sci. Mem., i, xiii,
p. 103) . . . . . . . .17

17"! " On Lacinularia socialis, a Contribution to the
Anatomy and Physiology of the Rotifera " (Trans.
Micros. Soc, London, New Ser., i., 1853, pp.
1-19. Read Dec. 31, 1851. Sci. Mem., i. xv,
p. 126) . . . . . . . .17

18. "On the Anatomy and Development of Echino-

coccus veterinorum " (Proc. Zool. Soc, xx, 1852,

pp. 110-26. Sci. Mem., i, xix, p. 197) . . 18

19. " Researches into the Structure of the Ascidians "

(Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1852, Part 2, pp. 76-7. Sci.
Mem., i, XVIII, p. 194) ..... 18-9

20. ** On the Morphology of the Cephalous Mollusca,

as illustrated by the Anatomy of certain Hetero-
poda and Pteropoda collected during the Voyage
of H.M.S. Rattlesnake in 1846-50" (Phil. Trans.
Roy. Soc, cxliii, 1853, pp. 29-66. Read at the
Brit. Assoc. Meeting of 1852. Sci. Mem., i,
XVII, p. 152) ....... 19-20

21. "Upon Animal Individuality" (Proc. Roy.

Inst., i, 185 1-4, pp. 184-9. ^'^^^ Mem., i, xvi,

p. 146) . . . . . . . .20-1

22. "Observations on the Existence of Cellulose in

the Tunic of Ascidians " (Q. J. Micros. Sci., i,
1853. Sci. Mem., i, XXI, p. 221) ... 21

23. "On the Development of the Teeth, and on the

Nature and Import of Nasmyth's ' Persistent
Capsule ' " (op. cit., i, 1853. Sci. Mem., i, xxii,
p. 224) . . , . . . . .21

24. "The Cell-Theory" (Brit, and For. Medico-Chir.

APPENDIX

259

Review, xii, 1853, pp. 285-314. Sci. Mem., i, page
XXIII, p. 242) 21-2

25. "On the Identity of Structure of Plants and

Animals" (Proc. Roy. Inst., i, 185 1-4, pp. 298-
302; Edinburgh, New Philos. J., liii, 1852, pp.
172-7. Sci. Mem., i, xx, p. 216) ... 22

26. "Kolliker's Manual of Human Histology." Trans-

lated and edited by T. H. Huxley and G. Busk,

1853.

27. "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.

Tenth Edition. London, 1853 " (Review) (Brit,
and For. Medico-Chir. Rev., xiii, 1854, pp. 425-
39. Sci. Mem., Supply. Vol., I, p. i).

28. " On the Vascular System of the Lower Annulosa "

(Brit. Assoc. Rep., 1854, Part 2, p. 109. Sci.
Mem., i, xxiv, p. 279) 27

29. "On the Common Plan of Animal Forms" (Proc.

Roy. Inst., i, 1 85 1-4, pp. 444-6. Sci. Mem., i,
XXV, p. 281) 28

30. "On the Structure and Relation of the Corpuscula

Tactus (Tactile Corpuscles or Axile Corpuscles)
and of the Pacinian Bodies" (Q. J. Micros. Sci.,
ii, 1854, pp. 1-7. Sci. Mem., i, xxvi, p. 284) . 28

31. "On the Ultimate Structure and Relations of the

Malpighian Bodies of the Spleen and of the
Tonsillar Follicles" (op. cit., ii, 1854, pp. 74-82.
Sci. Mem., i, xxvii, p. 291) . . . . 28

32. " On the Educational Value of the Natural History

Sciences" (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 38) . . . 28-9

33. "Contributions to the Anatomy of the Brachio-

poda" (Proc. Roy. Soc, vii, 1854-5, pp. 106-17,
241-2. Sci. Mem., i, xxxii, p. 325). . . 30-1

34. " On a Hermaphrodite and Fissiparous Species of

Tubicolar Annelidas (Protula Dysteri) " (Edin-
burgh New Philos. J., i, 1855, pp. 1 13-29. Sci.
Mem., i, XXXIII, p. 337) . . . . .31

35. "On the Structure of Noctiluca miliaris " (Q. J.

Micros. Soc, iii, 1855, pp. 49-54. Sci. Mem., i,
XXXIV, p. 351) 31

36. " On the Enamel and Dentine of the Teeth " (op.

26o APPENDIX

cit., iii, 1855, pp. 127-30. Sci. Mem., i, xxxvi, page

p. 357) -3^

37. "Tegumentary Organs" (Todd's Cyclopaedia of

Anatomy and Physiology, 1855-6. Sci. Mem., i,
xxxviii, p. 365) . . . . . • 3^

38. " On Certain Zoological Arguments commonly Ad-

duced in Favour of the Hypothesis of the Progres-
sive Development of Animal Life in Time" (Proc.
Roy. Inst., ii, 1854-8. Sci. Mem.,i, xxviii,p.30o) 31-2

39. " On Natural History, as Knowledge, Discipline

and Power" (op. cit., ii, 1854-8, pp. 187-95.

Sci. Mem., i, xxix, p. 305) .... 34-5

40. "On the Method of Palaeontology" (Annals and

Mag. Nat. Hist., xviii, 1856, pp. 43-54. Sci.
Mem., i, xxxix, p. 432) . . ... 34

41. "Observations on the Structure and Affinities of

Himantopterus " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xii, 1856, pp.
34-7. Sci. Mem., i, xl, p. 445) • • • 35

42. "Further Observations on the Structure of Ap-

pendicularia flabellum (Chamisso) " (Q. J.
Micros. Sci., iv, 1856, pp. 181-91. Sci. Mem.,

i, xLi, p. 449) . . . . ; , • . • 35

43. "Note on the Reproductive Organs of the Cheilo-

stome Polyzoa (op. cit., iv, 1856, pp. 191-2.

Sci. Mem., i, xlii, p. 461) . . . . 35-6

44. "Observations on the Structure of Glacier Ice"

(Phil. Mag., xiv, 1857, pp. 241-60. Sci. Mem.

i, xLvi, p. 482). . . . . • • 37

45. "On the Structure and Motion of Glaciers"

(Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, cxlvii, 1857, pp. 327-46.

Sci. Mem., ii, i, p. i) 37

46. "On the Present State of our Knowledge as to the

Structure and Functions of Nerve " (Proc. Roy.
Inst., ii, 1854-8, pp. 432-7. Sci. Mem., i, xxx,
p. 315) ... . . . • 37

47. "Description of a New Crustacean (Pygocephalus

Cooperi, Huxley) from the Coal Measures" (Q.
J. Geol. Soc, xiii, 1857, pp. 363-9. Sci. Mem.,
i, XLiii, p. 463) ...... 38

48. "On Dysteria ; a New Genus of Infusoria" (Q.

APPENDIX 261

J. Micros. Sci., v, 1857, pp. 78-82. Sci. Mem., page
i, xLiv. p. 471). . • . . • . 38

49. " Review of Dr. Hannover's Memoir : 'Ueber die

Entwicklung und den Bau des Saugethier-
zahns ' " (op. cit., v, 1857, pp. 166-71. Sci.
Mem., xLv, p. 476) ..... 38

50. '* On the Agamic Reproduction and Morphology

of Aphis" (Trans. Linn. Soc, xxii, 1858, pp.
193-220, 226-36. Read November 5, 1857.
Sci. Mem., ii, 11, p. 26) ..... 38

51. "The Oceanic Hydrozoa : a Description of the

Calycophoridae and Physophoridae observed during
the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake in the years
1846-50" (Ray Society, 1858) . . 9, 15,24-7

52. "On the Phenomena of Gemmation " (Proc. Roy.

Inst., ii, 1854-8, pp. 534-8. Sci. Mem. i, xxxi,

p. 321) . . . . . . . . 38-9

53. *' On Cephalaspis and Pteraspis " (Q. J. Geol. Soc,

xiv, 1858, pp. 267-80. Sci. Mem., i, xlvii, p.

502) , • . • 39

54. "Observations on the Genus Pteraspis" (Brit.

Assoc. Rep., 1858, Part II., pp. 82-3. Sci.
Mem., i, XLviii, p. 517) 39-4°

55. "On a New Species of Plesiosaurus (P. Etheridgii)

from Street near Glastonbury ; with Remarks on
the Structure of the Atlas and Axis Vertebra;,
and of the Cranium in that Genus " (Q. J. Geol.
Soc, xiv, 1858, pp. 281-94. Sci. Mem., i,
xLix, p. 522 ....... 40

56. •'' On Some Points in the Anatomy of Nautilus

pompilius (J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), iii, 1859, PP-
36-44. Read June 3, 1858. Sci. Mem., ii, iii,
p. 81) 40

57. "On the Theory of the Vertebrate Skull" (Proc.

Roy. Soc, ix, 1857-9, pp. 381-457 ; Annals and
Mag. Nat. Hist., iii, 1859, pp. 414-39. Sci.
Mem., i, L, p. 538) 40-1

58. " On the Persistent Types of Animal Life " (Proc

Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-62, pp. 151-3. Sci. Mem.,

ii, IV, p. 90) ...... 45

262 APPENDIX

59. " The Darwinian Hypothesis " (Times Review of page

the Origin of Species, December 26, 1859. Coll.
Essays, ii, p. i) . . . . . . 45'^

60. " On the Stagonolepis Robertsoni (Agassiz) of the

Elgin Sandstones ; and on the Recently Dis-
covered Footmarks in the Sandstones of Cum-
mingstone " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xv, 1859, pp.
440-60. Sci. Mem., ii, v, p. 94) ... 47

61. "On some Amphibian and Reptilian Remains from

South Africa and Australia" (op. cit., xv, 1859,

pp. 642-9. Sci. Mem., ii, vi, p. 120) . . 47

62. "On a New Species of Dicynodon (D. Murrayi),

from near Colesberg, South Africa ; and on the
Structure of the Skull in the Dicynodonts" (op.
cit., XV, 1859, pp. 649-58. Sci. Mem., ii, vii,

P- 130) • • • 47

63. "On Rhamphorhynchus Bucklandi, a Pterosaurian

from the Stonesfield Slate" (op. cit., xv, 1859,

pp. 658-70. Sci. Mem., ii, viii, p. 141) . 47

64. *' On a Fossil Bird and a Fossil Cetacean from New-

Zealand" (op. cit., XV, 1859, PP' 670-7. Sci.
Mem., ii, ix, 157) 47-8

65. "On the Dermal Armour of Crocodilus Hasting-

sise " (op. cit., xv, 1859, PP- 678-80. Sci. Mem.,

ii, X, p. 166) ....... 48

66. " On the Anatomy and Affinities of the Genus

Pterygotus " (Meras. Geol. Survey U.K., Mono-
graph I, 1859, pp. 1-36. Sci. Mem., ii, xi, p.
170) ........ 48

67. " On Dasyceps Bucklandi (Labyrinthodon Buck-

landi, Lloyd)" {0^. cit., 1859, pp. 52-6. Sci.
Mem., ii, xiii, p. 263) ..... 48

68. " On a Fragment of a Lower Jaw of a Large Laby-

rinthodont from Cubbington " (op. cit., 1859, pp.
56-7. Sci. Mem., ii, xvi, p. 269) ... 48

69. "Observations on the Development of Some Parts

of the Skeleton of Fishes" (Q. J. Micros. Sci.,

vii, 1859, PP- 33"46- Sci. Mem., ii, xv, p. 271) 48-9

70. " On the Dermal Armour of Jacare and Caiman,

with Notes on the Specific and Generic Characters

APPENDIX 263

of Recent Crocodilia" (J. Linn. Soc. (ZooL), iv, page
i860, pp. 1-28. Read February 15, 1859. Sci.
Mem., ii, xvi, p. 286) ..... 49

71. "Time and Life" (Macmillan's Magazine,

December 1859).

72. "On the Anatomy and Development of Pyro-

soma " (Trans. Linn. Soc, xxiii, 1862, pp. 193-
250. Read December I, 1859. Sci. Mem.

11, xvn, p. 313)

73. "On Species and Races, and their Origin" (Proc

Roy. Inst., iii, 1858-62, pp. 195-200; Annals and
Mag. Nat. Hist., v, i860, pp. 344-6. Sci. Mem
ii, xvin, p. 388) .....

74. " The Origin of Species " (Westminster Review,

April, i860. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 22)

75. <'0n the Structure of the Mouth and Pharynx ol

the Scorpion" (Q. J. Micros. Sci., viii, i860, pp
250-4. Sci. Mem., ii, xix, p. 395) .

76. "On a New Species of Macrauchenia (M

Bolivensis) " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xvii, 1861, pp
73-84. Read November 21, i86o. Sci. Mem.
ii, XXI, p. 403)

77. "On the Nature of the Earliest Stages of the

Development of Animals " (Proc Roy. Inst., iii
1858-62, pp. 315-7. Sci. Mem., ii, xx, p. 400)

78. "A Lobster: or the Study of Zoology" (Coll

Essays, viii, p. 196) .....

79. " On the Zoological Relations of Man with thi

Lower Animals " (Nat. Hist. Review, i, 1861
pp. 67-84. Sci. Mem., ii, xxvii, p. 471) .

80. " On the Brain of Ateles paniscus " (Proc. Zool

Soc, 1861, pp. 247-60. Sci. Mem., ii, xxvii, p
493) . . . . . _. . _

81. '* On Pteraspis Dunensis (Archaeoteuthis Dunensis

Roemer)" (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xvii, 1861, pp. 163
6. Sci. Mem., ii. xxn, p. 417)

82. " Preliminary Essay upon the Systematic Arrange

ment of the Fishes of the Devonian Epoch'
(Mem. Geol. Survey U.K., Decade x, 1861
Sci. Mem., ii, xxin, p. 421)

49

50-2
54-5

55-6

56

59
59-61

61-2

62

62

62

264 APPENDIX

83. *' Glyptolaemus Kinnairdi" (op. cit. pp. 41-6. Sci. page

Mem., ii, xxiv, p. 461) . . . . .62

84. " Phancroplcuron Andersoni " (op. cit., pp. 47-9.

Sci. Mem., ii, xxv, p. 467) .... 62

85. " On the Relation of Man to the Lower Animals"

(Coll. Essays, vii, p. 77) 63-5

86. " On the Fossil Remains of Man " (Proc. Roy. Inst.,

iii, 1858-62, pp. 420-2. Sci. Mem., ii, xxviii,

?• 509) • o •■ ,; ^5-6

87. "Anniversary Address to the Geological Society

(Geological Contemporaneity and Persistent
Types of Life) {Q. J. Geol. Soc, xviii, 1862, pp.
xl-liv. Delivered February 21, 1862. Sci.
Mem., ii, xxxix, p. 512. Coll. Essays, viii, p.
272) ^6

88. " On New Labyrinthodonts from the Edinburgh

Coal-field " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xviii, 1862, pp.
291-6. Sci. Mem., ii, xxx, p. 530) ... 67

89. " On a Stalk-eyed Crustacean from the Carboni-

ferous Strata near Paisley" (op. cit., xviii, 1862,

pp. 420-2. Sci. Mem,, ii, xxxi, p. 536) . 67

QO. " On the Premolar Teeth of Diprotodon, and on a
New Species of that Genus " (op. cit., xviii,
1862, pp. 422-7. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxii, p. 539) 67

Qi. "Description of a New Specimen of Glyptodon "
(Proc. Roy. Soc, xii, 1862-3, pp. 316-26. Sci.
Mem., ii, xxxni, p. 546) .... 68

92. " Description of Anthracosaurus Russelli, a New

Labyrinthodont from the Lanarkshire Coal-field "
(Q J. Geol. Soc, xix, 1863, pp. 56-68. Sci.
Mem., ii, xxxv, p. 558) 68

93. " Letter on the Human Remains found in the

Shell Mounds" (Trans. Ethnol. Soc, ii, 1863,

pp. 265-6. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxiv, p. 556) . 68

94. " Six Lectures to Working-men on ' Our Know-

ledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic
Nature'" (Coll. Essays, ii, p. 303) . . .68-71

95. "Man's Place in Nature," 1863 (Coll. Essays, vii,

I, II, and III, pp. \,etseg.) . . . 66,72

96. " On the Osteology of the Genus Glyptodon "

APPENDIX 265

(Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc, civ, 1865, pp, 31-70. page
Received December 30, 1863. Sci. Mem., iii,

"i> P- 37) • • 73

97. "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy" (one vol.

only published), 1864 .... 68,73

98. "Atlas of Osteology," 1864 . . . -73

99. "Criticisms on 'The Origin of Species '" (Nat.

Hist. Rev., iv, 1864. Coll. Essays, ii. p. 80) . 73-4
100. " Further Remarks upon the Human Remains
from the Neanderthal " (Nat. Hist. Rev. iv,
1864, pp. 429-46. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxvi,

P-573 • • , .-74

10 r. "On the Angwantibo (Arctocebus Calabarensis,

Gray) of old Calabar" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864,

pp. 314-35. Sci. Mem., ii, xxxvii, p. 591) . 74-5

102. "On the Cetacean Fossils termed ' Ziphius ' by

Cuvier, with a Notice of a New Species (Belem-
noziphius compressus) from the Red Crag " (Q.
J. Geol. Soc, XX, 1864, pp. 388-96. Sci. Mem.,
iii, I, p. i) . . . . . ■ • 75

103. " On the Structure of the Belemnitidae, with a

Description of a more complete specimen of
Belemnites than any hitherto known, and an
Account of a New Genus of Belemnitidas,
'Xiphoteuthis'" (Mem. Geol. Survey U.K.,
Monograph H., 1864. Sci. Mem., iii, 11, p. 11) 75

104. "Emancipation — Black and White" (The

Reader, May 1865. Coll. Essays, iii, p. 66) . 77-8

105. "On the Methods and Results of Ethnology"

(Proc. Roy. Inst., iv, 1862-6, pp. 461-3 ; Fort-
nightly Review, 1865, Sci. Mem., iii, vi,
p. 121. Coll. Essays, vii, p, 209) ... 79

106. " On the Structure of the Stomach in Desmodus

rufus" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1865, pp. 386-90.

Sci. Mem., iii, iv, p. 85) .... 79

107. "On a Collection of Vertebrate Fossils from the

Panchet Rocks, Ranigunj, Bengal " (Mem.
Geol. Survey India ; Palccontologica Indica, i,
1865-85, pp. 3-24. Sci. Mem., iii, v, p. 90) . 80

108. " Explanatory Preface to the Catalogue of the

266 APPENDIX

Palasontological Collection in the Museum of page
Practical Geology," 1865. (Sci. Mem., iii,

VII, P- 125) 80

109. " Elementary Lessons in Physiology," 1866 . 81-2
no. "On the Advisableness of Improving Natural

Knowledge" (Coll. Essays, i, p. 18) . . 82-3

in. "Prehistoric Remains in Caithness" (Nat. Hist.

Rev., February 7, 1866) .... 83

112. " British Fossils. Illustrations of the Structure of

the Crossopterygian Ganoids" (Mem. Geol.
Survey U.K., Decade xii, 1866. Sci. Mem.,
Supply. Vol., II, p. 20) 83

113. "On a Collection of Fossil Vertebrata, from the

Jarrow Colliery, County of Kilkenny, Ireland"
(Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., xxiv, 1871, pp. 351-
69. Read January 6, 1866. Sci, Mem., iii,

VIII, p. 180) 83

114. "On Some Remains of Large Dinosaurian

Reptiles from the Stormberg Mountains, South
Africa" {Q. J. Geol. Soc, xxiii, 1867, pp. 1-6.
Read November 7, 1866. Sci. Mem., iii, ix,
P- 195) • • 83-4

115. " On a New Specimen of Telerpeton Elginense "

(op. cit. xxiii, 1867, pp. 77-84. Read December

19, 1866. Sci. Mem., iii, x, p. 205) . . 84

116. " On Two Widely Contrasted Forms of the Human

Cranium" (J. Anat. and Physiol., i, 1867, pp.
60-77. Sci. Mem. iii, XI, p, 214) ... 85

117. " On Acanthopholis horridus, a New Reptile from

the Chalk-marl " (Geol. Mag,, iv, 1 867, pp. 65-7.

Sci. Mem., iii, xii, p. 231) . . . . 86

118. "On the Classification of Birds; and on the

Taxonomic Value of the Modifications of
Certain of the Cranial Bones observable in that
Class" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1867, pp. 415-72.
Read April ti, 1867. Sci. Mem., iii, xiii,
P- 239) 86

119. "A Liberal Education ; and where to find it"

(Macmillan's Magazine, 1868. Coll. Essays,

iii. p. 76) 86-7

APPENDIX 267

120. "On a Piece of Chalk" (op. cit., 1868. Coll. page

Essays, viii, p. 1) . . . . . . 87-8

121. "On the Physical Basis of Life" (Fortnightly

Review, 1868. Coll. Essays, i, p. 130) . . 88-9

122. "The Scientific Aspect of Positivism" (op. cit.,

1869).

123. "Remarks upon Archseopteryx lithographica"

(Proc. Roy. Soc, xvi, pp. 243-8. Sci. Mem.,

iii, XVIII, p. 340) ...... 89

124. " On Saurosternon Bainii and Pristerodon M'Kayi,

two New Lacertilian Reptiles from South
Africa" (Geol. Mag., v, 1868, pp. 201-5. Sci.
Mem., iii, xiv, p. 298) ..... 89

125. "On the Animals which are Most Nearly Inter-

mediate between Birds and Reptiles" (op. cit.,
v, 1868, pp. 357-65. Sci. Mem., iii, xv, p.
303) . . . . . . . .89

126. "On the Formation of the Cranium among the

Patagonians and the Fuegians, with Some Re-
marks upon American Crania in General " (J.
Anat. and Physiol., ii, 1868, pp. 253-71. Sci.
Mem., iii, XVI, p. 314) ..... 90

127. "On Some Organisms Living at Great Depths in

the North Atlantic Ocean " {Q. J. Micros. Sci.,
New Ser., viii, 1868, pp. 203-12. Sci. Mem.,
iii, XVII, p. 330) . .... .90

128. "On the Classification and Distribution of the

Alectoromorphae and Heteromorphae " (Proc. ^

Zool. Soc, 1868, pp. 294-319. Sci. Mem., iii,

XIX, p. 346) ....... 90

129. "Scientific Education : Notes of an After-dinner

Speech" (Macmillan's Magazine, 1869. Coll.
Essays, iii, p. iii) . . . . . . 90- 1

130. "The Anniversary Address of the President"

(Geological Reform) (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xxv,
1869, pp. xxviii-liii. Sci. Mem., iii, xxui, p.
397. Coll. Essays, viii, p. 305) . . . 94-5

131. "On Hyperodapedon " (op. cit., xxv, 1869, pp.

138-52. Sci. Mem., iii, XX, p. 374) . . 95

132. " On a New Labyrinthodont from Bradford" (op.

268

APPENDIX

cit., XXV, 1869, pp. 309-11. Sci. Mem., iii
XXI, p. 391) ......

133. "On the Upper Jaw of Mcgalosaurus " (op. cit.

XXV, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xxii, p. 400)

134. "On Hypsilophodon Foxii, a New Dinosaurian

from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight " (op
cit., xxvi, 1870, pp. 3-12. Read November 10

1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xxvii, p. 454)

135. "Further Evidence of the Affinity between the

Dinosaurian Reptiles and Birds" (op. cit., xxvi

1870, pp. 12-31. Read November 10, 1869
Sci. Mem., iii, xxviu, p. 465)

136. " On the Classification of Dinosauria, with Obser-

vations on the Dinosauria of the Trias" (op
cit., xxvi, 1870, pp. 32-50. Read November
24, 1869. Sci. Mem., iii, xxix, p. 487)

137. "On the Ethnology and Archjeology of India

Opening Address of the President." (J, Ethnol
Soc, New Ser., i, 1869, pp. 89-93. Sci
Mem., iii, xxiv, p. 427)

138. "On the Ethnology and Archaeology of North

America" (op. cit., i, 1869, pp. 218-21. Sci
Mem., iii, xxv, p. 432) ....

139. "On the Representatives of the Malleus and

Incus of the Mammalia in other Vertebrata'
(Proc. Zool. Soc, 1869, pp. 391-407. Sci
Mem., iii, xxvi, p. 436)

140. "The Genealogy of Animals " (Academy, 1869

Coll. Essays, ii, p. 107) ....

141. "Introduction to the Classification of Animals,'

1869 .......

142. " The School Boards : what they can do, and

what they may do " (Contemporary Review,
1870. Coll. Essays, iii, p. 374)

143. "On Medical Education" (Coll. Essays, iii, p

303) . . . . . _ .

144. "On Descartes' 'Discourse touching the Method

of using one's Reason rightly and of seeking
Scientific Truth'" (Macmillan's Magazine, 1870.
Coll. Essays, i, p. 166) . . . . .

106

APPENDIX 269

145. " Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews," 1870. page

[Includes Nos. 32, 74, 78, 87, 99, 104, 1 10, 1 19,
120, 121, 122, 129, 130, 144] . . . 105

146. "On the Formation of Coal" (Contemporary

Review, 1870. Coll. Essays, viii, p. 137) . 106-7

147. "Anniversary Address of the President"

(Palaeontology and the Doctrine of Evolution)
(Q. J. Geol, Soc, xxvi, 1870, pp. xxix-lxiv.
Sci. Mem., iii, xxx, p. 510. Coll. Essays, viii,

p. 340) 107-8

148. "On the Milk Dentition of Palaeotherium

magnum" (Geol. Mag., vii, 1870, pp. 153-5.

Sci. Mem., iii, xxxv, p. 595) .... 108

149. " Triassic Dinosauria " (Nature, i, 1870, pp.

23-4. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxvi, p. 595) . . 108

150. "On the Ethnology of Britain" (Some Fixed

Points in British Ethnology). (J, Ethnol. Soc,
New Sen, ii, 1870, pp. 382-4; Contemporary
Review, 1870. Coll. Essays, vii, p. 253) . 108

151. "Anniversary Address of the President" (op.

cit., pp. xvi-xxiv. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxii, p. 554) 108-9

152. "On the Geographical Distribution of the Chief

Modifications of Mankind" (op. cit., pp.
404-12. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxiii, p. 564) . . 109

153. " Presidential Address to the British Association

at Liverpool " (Biogenesis and Abiogenesis)
(Rep. Brit. Assoc. (1870) 1871, pp. Ixxiii-
Ixxxix. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxiv, p. 572. Coll.
Essays, viii, p. 229) . . . , 109-10

154. "On the Relations of Penicillium, Torula and

Bacterium " (Q. J. Micros. Sci., New Sen,
X, 1870, pp. 355-62. Sci. Mem., iii, xxxvii, p.
601) . . . . . . . .110

155. "On Coral and Coral Reefs" (Good Words,

1870).

156. "Administrative Nihilism" (Fortnightly Re-

view, 1 87 1. Coll. Essays, i, p. 251) . iii, 226

157. "Metaphysics of Sensation" (Macmillan's

Magazine, 187 1. Coll. Essays, vi, p. 243) . 11 1

158. "Yeast" (Contemporary Review, 1871. Sci.

270 APPENDIX

Mem., iii, XXXVIII, p. 608. Coll Essays, viii, page
p. 1 10) . . . . . . .111-2

159. " Mr. Darwin's Critics " (Contemporary Review,

1871. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 120) . . . 112

160. "Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated

Animals," 1871 113

161. "British Fossils. Illustrations of the Structure

of Crossopterygian Ganoids " (Mem. Geol.
Survey U.K., Decade xiii, 1872. Sci. Mem.,
Supply. Vol., HI, p. 68) . . . . .117

162. "Critiques and Addresses," 1873. [Includes

Nos. 105, 140, 142, 143, 146, 147, 150, 153,

155, 156, 157, 158, 159] . . . .118

163. "Problems of the Deep Sea" (Coll. Essays,

viii, p. 37) . . . . . . 118-9

164. "Universities : Actual and Ideal" (Contemporary

Review, 1874. Coll. Essays, iii, p. 189) . 1x9-20

165. "Joseph Priestley" (Coll. Essays, iii, p. i) .120-1

166. "On the Hypothesis that Animals are Automata,

and its History" (Coll. Essays, i, p. 199) • 121

167. "On the Structure of the Skull and of the Heart

of Menobranchus lateralis" (Proc. Zool. Soc,

1874, pp. 186-204. Sci. Mem., iv, i, p. 1 ) 122

168. "Actinozoa" (Ency. Brit., 9th edn., i, 1875) ^^S

169. "Amphibia" (op. cit., i, 1875) . • * • ^^3

170. "Animal Kingdom" (op. cit., ii, 1875)

171. "Biology" (op. cit., iii, 1875) •

172. "Note on the Development of the Columella

Auris in the Amphibia" (Nature, xi, 1875, pp
68-9. Read at Belfast, August 25, 1874 Sci
Mem., iv, II, p. 23) ....

173. "Preliminary Note upon the Brain and Skull of

Amphioxus lanceolatus " (Proc, Roy. Soc, xxiii

1875, pp. 127-32. Received December 17
1874. Sci. Mem., iv, 111, p. 26)

174. " On the Bearing of the Distribution of the Portio

Dura upon the Morphology of the Skull " (Proc
Phil. Soc, Cambridge, ii, 1876, pp. 348-51
Read May 11, 1874. Sci. Mem.,iv, iv, p. 32)

175. "On the Classification of the Animal Kingdom'

123

123

122

122

122

APPENDIX

271

176. "

177. "

178. "

180. "

181. "

182. "

183. "

184. "

185. "

186. "

187. "

(J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), xii, 1876, pp. 199-226. page
Read December 3, 1874. Sci. Mem., iv, v,

P- 35) 123

On the Recent Work ot the Challenger Expedi-
tion, and its bearing on Geological Problems "
(Proc. Roy. Inst., vii, 1875, pp. 354-7. Sci.
Mem., iv, vi, p. 61. Coll. Essays, viii, p. 6g) . 123-4
A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary
Biology" (in collaboration with Dr. H. N.

Martin), 1875 126

On Stagonolepis Robertsoni, and on the Evolu-
tion of the Crocodilia" (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xxxi,
i8755_PP' 423-38. Sci. Mem., iv, vii, p. 66). 127
Contributions to Morphology. Ichthyopsida.
No. I. On Ceratodus Forsteri, with Observa-
tions on the Classification of Fishes" (Proc.
Zool. Soc, 1876, pp. 24-59. Received January
4, 1875. Sci. Mem., iv, vni, p. 86) . . 127

On the Position of the Anterior Nasal Apertures
in Lepidosiren " (op. cit,, pp. 180-1. Received
January 7, 1876. Sci. Mem., iv, ix, p. 125) . 127
On the Border Territory between the Animal
and the Vegetable Kingdoms " (Macmillan's
Magazine, 1876. Sci. Mem., iv, xi, p. 145.
Coll. Essays, viii, p. 162) .... 128

Address on University Education " (Coll. Essays,

iii. P- 235) 131-2

Three Lectures on Evolution " (Coll. Essays,

iv, p. 46) 132

On the Study of Biology " (Coll. Essays, iii, p.

262) • 133-4

On the Evidence as to the Origin of Existing
Vertebrate Animals" (Nature, xiii, 1876, pp.
388-9, 410-2, 429-30, 467-9, 514-6 ; xiv, 1876,
pp. 33-4. Sci. Mem., iv, xii, p. 163) . 134-5

On the Nature of the Craniofacial Apparatus
of Petromyzon " (J. Anat. and Physiol., x, 1876,
pp. 412-29. Sci. Mem., iv, x, p. 128) . , 135
Elementary Instruction in Physiology " (Coll.
Essays, iii, p. 294) 136

272 APPENDIX

i88. "Technical Education" (Coll. Essays, iii, p. page

40+) 136-7

189. "Physiography," 1877. ..... 140

190. "The Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals," 1877. 140-1

191. "American Addresses," 1877. [Includes Nos.

182, 183, 184.] . . . . . . 133

192. "The Crocodilian Remains found in the Elgin

Sandstones, with Remarks on the Ichnites of
Cummingstone " (Mem. Geol. Survey U.K.,
Monograph III, 1877. Sci. Mem., iv, xiii, p.
188) . .141

193. "Evolution in Biology " (Ency. Brit., 9th edn.,

viii, 1878. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 187) . 139-40

194. " Informal Remarks on the Conclusions of Anthro-

pology " (Nature, xviii, 1878, pp. 445-8. Sci.
Mem., iv, xv, p. 265) ... . 143

195. "William Harvey" (Fortnightly Review, New

Ser., xxiii, 1878, pp. 167-90. Sci. Mem., iv,
XVIII, p. 319) . . . . . • 144

196. "Hume," 1878 (Coll. Essays, vi) . . 144-50

197. " On the Classification and the Distribution of the

Crayfishes" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, pp. 752-88.

Sci. Mem., iv, xvi, p. 275) . . . .150

198. "On a New Arrangement for Dissecting Micro-

scopes" (J. Quekett Micros. Club, v, 1878-9,
pp. I44-5. Delivered November 22, 1878.
Sci. Mem. iv, xvii, p. 316) . . . .150

199. "On Sensation and the Unity of Structure

of Sensiferous Organs" (Proc. Roy. Inst., ix,
1882, pp. 115-24; Nineteenth Century, v,
1879. Sci. Mem., iv, xx, p. 357. Coll.
Essays, vi, p. 288) 152-3

200. "Presidential Address to Quekett Club" (on

Amateur Naturalists), (J. Quekett Micros. Club,
V, 1878-9. Delivered July 25, 1879. Sci.
Mem , iv, xxi, p. 374) .... 153-4

201. "The Crayfish : an Introduction to the Study of

Zoology," 1879 154

202. " Prefatory Note " (to Translation of Haeckel's

"Freedom in Science, and Teaching," 1879).

APPENDIX

273

203. " On the Characters of the Pelvis in the Mam- page

malia, and the Conclusions respecting the Origin
of Mammals which may be based on them"
(Proc. Roy. Soc, xxviii, 1879, pp. 395-405.
Sci. Mem., iv, xix, p. 345) .... 155

204. " On Certain Errors respecting the Structure of

the Heart attributed to Aristotle" (Nature,
xxi, 1879, pp. 1-5. Sci. Mem., iv, xxii, p.
380) . . . . . . . _ . iss

205. " On the Coming of Age of the Origin of Species "

(Nature, xxii, 1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxiv, p.

395. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 227). . . . 156

206. "On the Method of Zadig : Retrospective Pro-

phecy as a Function of Science " (Nineteeth
Century, June 1880. Coll. Essays, iv, p. i) . 157

207. "Science and Culture" (Coll. Essays, iii,

p. 134) IS7-8

208. "Introductory Science Primer" (finished 1879),

1880 155

209. " On the Epipubis in the Dog and the Fox "

(Proc. Roy. Soc, xxx, 1879-80, pp. 162-3.
Read February 5, 1880. Sci. Mem., iv, xxiii,

P- 393) .158

2iO. "On the Cranial and Dental Characters of the
Canids" (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1880, pp. 238-
88. Sci. Mem., iv, xxv, p. 404) . . . 159

211. " On the Application of the Laws of Evolution

to the arrangement of the Vertebrata, and more
particularly of the Mammalia" (op. cit., pp.
649-62. Sci. Mem., iv, xxvi, p. 457) . . 159

212. " The Herring" (Nature, xxiii, 1881, pp. 607-13.

Sci. Mem., iv, xxvii, p. 473) . . . 161-2

213. " The Connection of the Biological Sciences with

Medicine" (Nature, xxiv, 1881, pp. 342-6.
Sci. Mem., iv, xxviii, p. 493. Coll. Essays,

iii, p. 347) 162

214. "Science and Culture, and other Essays, 1881."

(Includes Nos. 164, 165, 166, 181, 188, 193,
199, 204, 205, 206, 207, 213).

215. "The Rise of Progress and Palaeontology" (Nature,

274 APPENDIX

xxiv, 1881, pp. 452-5. Sci. Mem., iv, xxix, page
p. 508. Coll. Essays, iv, p. 24) , , 162-3

216. "Charles Darwin" (Obituary Notice) (Nature,

XXV, 1882. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 244) . 163-4

217. "The Darwin Memorial" (Coll. Essays, ii,

p. 248) 164

218. "On Science and Art in Relation to Education"

(Coll. Essays, iii, p. 160) . . . 166-8

219. "The State and the Medical Profession" (Coll.

Essays, iii, p. 323) 169

220. "A Contribution to the Pathology of the Epi-

demic known as the 'Salmon Disease ' " (Proc.
Roy. Soc, xxxiii, 1882, pp. 381-9. Sci. Mem.,
iv, XXX, p. 520) 170

221. "On Saprolegnia in Relation to the Salmon

Disease" (Q. J, Micros. Sci., New Ser., xxii,

1882, pp. 311-33 ; extracted from the 21st
Annual Report of H.M.'s Inspectors of Sea
Fisheries. Sci. Mem., iv, xxii, p. 540) . .170

222. "On the Respiratory Organs of Apteryx " (Proc.

Zool. Soc, 1882, pp. 560-9. Sci. Mem., iv,
XXXI, p. 529) 170

223. "Oysters and the Oyster Question" (Proc. Roy.

Inst., X, 1884, pp. 336-58. Delivered May 11,

1883. English Illustrated Magazine, 1883-4,
pp. 47-55, 1 12-21. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxiv,

P- 572) 171

224. "Inaugural Address: Fisheries Exhibition,

London, 1883 " (Fisheries Exhib. Literature, iv,
1885, pp. 3-22. Delivered June 18, 1883.
Sci. Mem., Supply. Vol., iv, p. 80) . .172

225. "Contributions to Morphology. Ichthyopsida.

— No. 2.- On the Oviducts of Osmerus ,• with
Remarks on the Relations of the Teleostean
with the Ganoid Fishes (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1883,
pp. 132-9. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxiii, p. 563) . 172

226. " Evolution, as illustrated by the Pearly Nautilus "

(Nature, xxviii, 1883, pp. 187-9. Sci. Mem.,
Supply. Vol. iv, p. 69) , . . . .172

227 " The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters

APPENDIX 275

of Nature " (Nineteenth Century, December page
1885. Coll. Essays, iv, p. 139) . . . 179

228. " Mr. Gladstone and Genesis " (op. cit., February

1886. Coll. Essays, iv, p. 164) . . .180-1

229. "The Evolution of Theology: an Anthropo-

logical Study" (op. cit., March and April 1886.
Coll. Essays, iv, p. 287) . . . .184, 186-7

230. "From the Hut to the Pantheon" (The Youth's

Companion, 1886) ...... 184

231. "Science and Morals" (Fortnightly Review,

November 1886. Coll. Essays, ix, p. 117) . 187-8

232. "Address on Behalf of the National Association

for the Promotion of Technical Education "
(Coll. Essays, iii, p. 427) . . . .191

233. " Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Realism " (Nine-

teenth Century, February 1887. Coll. Essays,

v, p. 59) . . . . . . 193, 195

234. "Science and Pseudo-Science" (op. cit,, April

1887. Coll. Essays, v, p. 90) . . . 196

235. "Science and the Bishops" (An Episcopal

Trilogy) (op. cit., November 1887. Coll. Essays,

v, p. 126) ....... 196-8

236. "The Progress of Science" (in T. H. Ward's

"The Reign of Queen Victoria," 1887. Coll.
Essays, i, p. 42) ..... 199-200

237. "On the Reception of the Origin of Species"

(in Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, vol. ii,
chap, v, pp. 179-204, 1887) .... 200

238. " Preliminary Note on the Fossil Remains of a

Chelonian Reptile, Ceratochelys sthenurus, from
Lord Howe's Island, Australia" (Proc. Roy.
Soc, xliii, 1887, pp. 232-8. Sci. Mem., iv,
XXXV, p. 606) ...... 200

239. "The Gentians: Notes and Queries " (J. Linn.

Soc. (Bot.), xxiv, 1888, pp. 101-24. Read
April 7, 1887. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxvi, p. 612). 200

240. " Further Observations upon Hyperodapedon

Gordoni " (Q. J. Geol. Soc, xliii, 1877, pp.
675-94. Sci. Mem., iv, xxxvn, p. 636) . . 200

241. "Industrial Struggle for Existence" (The

276 APPENDIX

Struggle for Existence in Human Society) page
(Nineteenth Century, February 1888. Coll.
Essays, ix, p. 195) ...... 202

242. "Charles Darwin: Obituary Notice" (Proc.

Roy. Soc, xliv, 1888. Coll. Essays, ii, p. 253)

164, 202-3

243. "Agnosticism" (Nineteenth Century, February

1889. Coll. Essays, v, p. 209) . . 205-7, 209

244. " The Value of Witness to the Miraculous " (op.

cit., March 1889. Coll. Essays, v, p. 160) . 207

245. "Agnosticism: a Rejoinder " (op. cit., April 1889.

Coll. Essays, v, p. 263) ..... 207-8

246. "Agnosticism and Christianity" (op. cit., June

1889. Coll. Essays, V, p. 309) . . .208-9

247. " Autobiography " (Coll. Essays, i, p. i) 1,2,4,21,34,

209-10

248. " The Natural Inequality of Men " (Nineteenth

Century, January 1890. Coll. Essays, i,

p. 290) . . . . . . . .212

249. " Natural and Political Rights " (op. cit., February

1890. Coll. Essays, i, p. 336) . . .212

250. "Capitaljthe Mother of Labour "(op. cit., March

1890. Coll. Essays, ix, p. X47) . . .212-3

251. "Government: Anarchy or Regimentation " (op.

cit., May 1890. Coll. Essays, i, p. 383) . . 213-4

252. "The Lights of the Church and the Light of

Science" (op. cit., July 1890. Coll. Essays,

iv, p. 201) . . , . . . .214-5

253. "The Keepers of the Herd of Swine " (op. cit,,

December 1890. Coll. Essays, v, p. 336) . 216-7

254. "On the Aryan Question" (op. cit., November

1890. Coll. Essays, vii, p. 271) . . .217-8

255. "Mr. Gladstone's Controversial Methods" (op.

cit., March 1891. Coll. Essays, v, p. 393) . 219

256. " Hasidadra's Adventure" (op. cit., June 1891.

Coll. Essays, iv, p. 239) ..... 220

257. "Possibilities and Impossibilities" (Agnostic

Annual, 1892 ; published October 1891. Coll.
Essays, v, p. 192) . . . . . .221

258. "Social Diseases and Worse Remedies" (Letters

APPENDIX 277

to the Times, December 1890 and January page
1891. Published as a pamphlet, 1891, Coll.
Essays, ix, p. 188) . . . 202, 221-2

259. "Memorial Verses to Tennyson " (Gib Diesen

Todten Mir Heraus) (Nineteenth Century,
November 1892) ...... 227

260. "Prologue" to "Controverted Questions" (Coll.

Essays, V. p. i) . . . . . 228-31

261. "Controverted Questions," 1892. [Includes

Nos. 215, 227, 228, 229, 231, 233, 234, 235,
243> 244, 245, 246, 252, 253, 255, 256] . 228-9

262. "An Apologetic Irenicon " (Fortnightly Review,

November 1892) 231

263. "Collected Essays," vol. i (Method and Results.

With Preface), 1892 ..... 232

264. " Evolution and Ethics " (published in pamphlet

form, 1893. Coll. Essays, ix, p. 46) . 231, 234

265. "Collected Essays," vol. ii (Darwiniana. With

Preface), 1893 • • • • 44-5. 70-i, 235

266. "Collected Essays," vol. iii (Science and Edu-

cation. With Preface), 189^ . . . 29, 235

267. " Collected Essays," vol. iv (Science and Hebrew

Tradition. With Preface), 1893 . , 185-6, 235

268. "Collected Essays," vol. v (Science and Christian

Tradition. With Preface), 1893 193-5, 215-6, 235

269. " Professor Tyndall " (Nineteenth Century,

January 1894) 235

270. "Past and Present (Nature, li, 1894, pp. 1-3) 237

271. "Collected Essays," vol vi (Hume, with Helps

to the Study of Berkeley. With Preface),

^894 145. 239

272. "Collected Essays," vol. vii (Man's Place in

Nature. With Preface), 1894 . . 72-3, 239

273. "Collected Essays," vol. viii (Discourses, Bio-

logical and Geological. With Preface),
1894 60-1, 239

274. "Collected Essays," vol. ix. (Evolution and

Ethics, and other Essays. With Preface and
"Prolegomena" to " Evolution and Ethics"),
'894 234-5, 239

278 APPENDIX

375. "Owen's Position in Anatomical Science" page
(Chapter in the Life of Sir Richard Owen)

^^9^ 239-41

276.- "Mr. Balfour's Attack on Agnosticism" (Nine-
teenth Century, March 1895) . . . 241

(C). CLASSIFICATION OF MORE TECHNICAL

WORKS.

The numbers refer to the memoirs and papers in the fore-
going list. A glance will show the extraordinary range of
Huxley's activities.

Physiography and Physical Geology, 44, 45, 189.

Principles of Paleontology, 38, 40, 87, io8, 147, 215.
The congestion of numbers in the Vertebrate groups is
largely due to researches on extinct forms.

Biology, 24, 25, 153, 171, 181.

Botany, 154, 158, 220, 221, 239.

Zoology —

I. General, 21, 29, 52, 170, 175, 275.
II. Invertebrata, 190.

1. Protozoa, 10, 35, 48, 127.

2. Porifera, 10, 13.

3. Cakntera, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 51, 168.
4 Echlnoderma, 16.

5. Platyhelmia, 18.

6. Chaetognatha, 11.

7. Annelida, 28, 34.

8. Rotifera, 17.

9. Polyzoa, 43.

10. Brachiopoda^ 33.

11. Arthropoda, lO, 41, 47, 50, 66, 75, 89, 197, 201.

12. Mollusca, 3, 8, 20, 56, 103.

III. Vertebrata, 37, 57, 98, 139, 160, 174, 185, 199,
211, 275.

1. Urochorda, 14, 15, 19, 22, 42, 72.

2. Cephalochorda, 2, 173.

3. Ostracodermata, 53, 54, 81.

4. Cyclostomata, 186.

APPENDIX 279

5. Pisces, 69, 82, 83, 84, 112, 161, 179, 180, 212,

235.

6. Amphibia, 61, 67,68, 88, 92, 107, 113, 132, 167,

169, 172.

7. Reptilia, 55, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 70, 107, 114,

115, 117, 124, 125, 131, 133, 134, 135. 136,
149, 178, 192, 238, 240.

8. Aves, 64, 118, 123, 128, 222,

9. Mammalia, i, 23, 30, 31, 36, 49, 64, 76, 79,

80, 85, 90, 91, 95, 96, lOi, 102, 106, 148,
203, 2O4, 209, 210, 211.
An'Imal Physiology, 46, 109, 199.

Ethnology, 86, 93, 95, 100, 105, iii, 116, 126, 137, 138,
150, 152, 194, 254,

INDEX

Aberdeen, i6, 117, 119,

Academic honours, 80, 117,
143, 151-2, 161, 178.

Administrative work, 98-9.

Afghan war, 143-4.

Agnostic, 93.

Agnosticism, 205-9, 221, 231.

Alexandria, 1 14.

Alford, Dean, 92.

Allman, Prof. G. F., 9.

Amateur naturalists, 153-4.

American visit, 130-3.

Amroth, 30.

Anthropological Society, 108.

Anthropology (and see Ethno-
logy), 143, 246.

Argyll, Duke of, 92, 195-7,
219.

Aristotle, 155, 250.

Arolla, 181, 189.

Arran, 46.

Assouan, 1 14.

Athenasum Club, 39.

Australia, 7, lo-i.

Autobiography, 1,4, 21, 27, 34,
209-10.

Auvergne, 1 17-8.

Azores, 1 1.

Bacon, Sir Francis, 199.
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 241
Balfour, Prof. F. M., 163, 166.
Balfour-Stewart, Prof., 113.

281

Bass's Straits, 1 1.

Bastian, Dr., no.

Bathybius, 90, 154.

Baynes, Prof., 123.

Bedford, Bishop of, 197-8.

Belfast, 121.

Bell, Prof., 128.

Berkeley, Bishop, 1 1, 145, 250.

Bible (and see Old Testament,
New Testament), 102-3,
185-6, 208, 228, 229-31.

Biblical infallibility, 185, 228.

Bibliography, 3.

Bichat, 134,

Biolog)-, 133-4, 202.

Birmingham, 120, 157.

Birth, I.

Blaythwayt, Raymond, 250.

Boyle, 199.

Bradford, 107.

Breslau, 38.

British Association, 7, 18, 26,
50, 52-4, 61, 66,81, 87,94,
109, 113, 121, 162, 197,
236-7.

British Museum, 18, 179, 202.

Brodie, Sir Benj., 53.

Brodrick, Hon. G. C, 171,
242-3,

Buckland, Frank, 159.

Busk, George, 76.

Bute, 46.

Butler, Bishop, 250.

282

INDEX

Cambridge, 66, 1 17, 135,137-
8, 151-2, 161, 166, 172-3,
232-3.

Canary Islands, 211.

Cape of Good Hope, 8.

Carlisle, Bishop of, 197-8.

Carlyle, 3, 58, 80, 161.

Carpenter, Dr. W. B., 46, 93.

Catania, 114.

Challenger, 119, 12 ,-4, 154.

Chambers, Robert, 52.

Chamisso, 13.

Chandler, Dr., 4.

Characteristics, i, 2,10, 21, 22-

3> 53-4. 93-4, 124-5, 138-9*
242-4.

Charing Cross Hospital, 5.

Cheshire origin, i.

Chester, 218.

Children, 36, 57, 85, 142, 174,

189, 203.

Christianity, 193-5.

City and Guilds, 137.

Clark, Sir Andrew, 93, 177,

235-
ClifFord, Prof. W. K., 92, 143,

187.
Clothworkers' Company, 136.
Collier, Mrs. (second daughter),

174, 189.
Commissions, 98-9, ill, 126,

135, 136, 162, 168-70,250.
Cork, 16.
Cornwall, 174.
Courtney, W. L., 251.
Coventry, i, 218-9.
Cowper St. Schools, 137.
Cross, Viscount, 126.
Cuvier, II, 35, 71, 157, 226,

245.

Dalgairns, Father, 92.
Dallinger and Drysdale, 154.
Darkest England Scheme,

221-2.
Darwin, Charles, 7, 30, 42, 44,

47,50,58,69, 112, 113, 114,

129, 137-8, 150, 163-6, 179,

200, 202, 237.
Darwin, Francis, 200.
Daubeny, Dr., 52.
Davies, Llewellyn, 241.
Death, 24I.
Defoe, 223.

De la Beche, Sir Henry, 34.
Deluge, 220.
Derby, Lord, 157.
Descartes, 106, 121, 145, 182,

199, 250.
De Varigny, H., 23, 222.
Dohrn, Dr. Anton, 85, 166.
Donnelly, Sir John, 176, 226.
Dublin, 117, 143.
Dyster, Dr., 32.

Ealing, i.

Early life, 1-5.

Eastbourne, 203, 211.

Edinburgh, 24, 80, 88, 92, 113,
116, 117, 124, 129, 135.

Education, 2, 4, 5.

Education Act, 99.

Educational ladder, 131.

Educational views : — agri-
cultural, 224-5; ^"^^ 166-8;
ed. and the State, 233 ; ed.
machinery, 61 ; elementary,
99-105, III, 233 ; medical,
105-6, 117, 120, 121-2,
131-2, 162; natural history
(and see Practical Biology),

INDEX

283

28-9, 126-7; religious,
loo-i, 102-3 5 science, 81-
2, 90-1, 166-8 ; secondary,
131, 150-1, 233 ; technical,
136-7, 189-93, 202 ; univer-
sity, 1 3 1-2, 232; women,
56-7, 77-8, 116-7, 121-2.

Educational work, 248-9.

Eginhard, 207.

Egypt, 114.

Ehrenberg, 12.

Ellicott, Bishop, 92.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 123,
139-40.

Engadine, 20i.

Engel, C, 210.

English language, 168, 222-3.

Erdkunde, 78.

Ethnological Society, 94, 108.

Ethnology (and see Anthro-
pology), 65, 72, 79, 83, 96,
108-9, 217-8.

Eton, I 50-1, 181,182,191,201.

Evans, Sir John, 175.

Examining work, 57, 201.

Exeter, 94.

Eyre, Governor, 80-1.

Falconer, Dr., 34.
Falkland Islands, 1 1.
Faraday, 165, 226.
Farrar, Prof., 53.
Farrer, Lord, 180.
Father (George Huxley), i, 2.
Fayrer, Sir Joseph, 6, 83, 96.
Fichte, 250.
Fiction, 129.
Finchley, 241.

Fishery work, 46, 68, 73, 159-
60, 161-2, 171, 182, 250.

Florence, 176.
Flourens, Monsieur, 74.
Flower, Sir W. H., 171, 201.
Forbes, Prof. Edward, 6, 1 5,

24, 26.
Forster, Rt. Hon. W. E., 99,

100.
Foster, Sir Michael, 22, 31, 41,

174-5. 193, 243-4.
France, 1 18.

Frankland, Sir Edward, 76.
French, 3.
Froude, J. A., 92.
Fullerian Professorship, 38, 85.

Galileo, 199.
Gardening, 218.
Gegenbaur, 41.
I Genesis, 179-80, 185, 220, 228.
Geological Society, 46, 66-7,

94-
Geological Survey, 24, 34, 36,

46.
George, Henry, 212.
German, 3, 4-5, 6-8.
Germany, 96, 1 18, 239.
Gibraltar, 1 14.
Giessen, 37.

Gladstone, Dr. J. H., 104.
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E.,

92, 179-81,215-7,219, 220,

250.
Goethe, 106, 240.
Goldsmith, 223.
Gordon, General, 176.
Grant, Sir Alex., 92.
Grant DufF, Sir M. E., 93,

105-
Gray, J. E., 6.
Great Barrier Reef, 11.

284

INDEX

Greek, 155.

Green, Prof. J. R., 53.

Greg, W. R., 93.

Grew, 199.

Grey, Albert, M.P., 182.

Grotc, George, 226.

Gull, Sir Wm., 93.

Haeckel, Prof. Ernst, 10, 85,

96-7, 247, 251-2.
Hamilton, Sir Wm., 3.
Harrison, Frederic, 92, 205,

207.
Harrison, J., 224.
Harvey, 144, 150, 199.
Haslar Hospital, 6.
Haslemere, 235.
Health, 3, 36-7, 58, 68, 104,

1 14-5, 117, 119, 163, 174,

179, i8r, 189, 201, 203,

218, 234, 235, 241.
Heathorn, Henrietta Anne

(Mrs T. H. Huxley), 10,
11,27,30.
Hegel, 250.

Herschel, Sir J. F. W., 25.
Higher Criticism, 185.
Hinton, James, 93,
Hirst, T. A., 76, 227.
Hobart Town, 8.
Hodeslea, 211.
Hodesleia, i, 211.
Hodgson, Shadworth, 93.
Hofmeister, 156.
Home Rule, 182-4.
Hooker, Sir J. D., 7, 18, 39,

44, 53, 58, 69, 75, 76, 113,

118, 202, 211, 227, 237.
Howes, Prof. G. B., 142, 177,

218.

Hume, 29, 89, 144-50, 250,
Hunterian Professorship, 68,

94-
Hutton, 2.

Hutton, R. H., 93.

Huxley, George (brother), 73.

Huxley, H. (son), 211.

Huxley, Leonard (son), 53, 76,

87-8, 92-3, 99-io°» 103,
104, 114, 115, 133, 138,
159, 166, 203.

Huxley, Lizzie (Mrs Scott,
sister), 4, 130.

Huxley, Mrs. T. H., 241.

Huxley Laboratory for Bio-
logical Research, 212.

Iddesleigh, Lord, 177,
Idealism, 153.
Ilkley, 181.
Illustrious, I 5.
Imperial Institute, 189.
International College, 78.
International Education So-
ciety, 78.
Ipswich, 18.
Italian, 3.
Italy, 1 14-5, 174-7.

Jamaica Committee, 80-1.

Java, 1 1.

Jex-Blake, Miss (Doctor), 116,

121-2.
Johns Hopkins University,

131-2.
Jones, Wharton, 5,
Jowett, 235.

Kant, 250.
Keats, 227.

INDEX

285

King's College, 16.
Kingsley, Charles, 57, 81.
Knowles, James, 92.
Kolliker, Prof. R. A, von, 74.
Kowalewsky, Prof. A., 18-9

244-5.
Kuenen, 186.

Laing, Dr., 205.

Lamarck, 42, 134.

Lankester, Prof. E. Ray, iii,
115, 232.

Latin, 168.

Lawrence, Lord, 104.

Lectures: — American, 131-3 ;
Croonian, 40 ; Edinburgh,
^3-Sy 123-4, 129; Hun-
terian, 68 ; Jermyn St., 37,
78 ; (on) popular Is., 60 ;
Royal Institution, 20-1, 28,

31-2. 35, 37. 38, 44, 50,
59, 65, 79, 85, III, 123-4,

128, 139, 152, 156, 158,

171 ; school boys, 91 ;

women, 91 ; working-men,

32-3, 59, 68-9, 79, 85-8,

134-5, 136-7, 150, 156-7,
158, 171.

Liddon, Canon, 193, 214.

Lilly, W. S., 187.

Linacre Professorship, 161.

Linnean Society, 39, 2x1.

Liverpool, 90, 109, 166.

Locke, III.

Lockyer, Sir Norman, 39.

London Institution, 133, 139,

153-
London School Board, 99-105,

III.

London University, 4, 5, 37,

181, 232.
Louisiade Archipelago, ii.
Lourdes, 118.
Lowe, Robert (Lord Sher-

brooke), 93.
Lubbock, Sir John (LordAve-

bury), 76, 93.
Lucretius, 227.
Lugano, 174.
Lyell, Sir Charles, 3, 43, 44,

58, 65, 67, 165.
Lyonet, 154.

Macgillivray, Prof. J., 6.
MacLeay, Wm., 25-6.
Madeira, 8, 211.
Magee, Bishop (Archbishop),

207, 209.
Maloja, 201, 204, 235.
Malpighi, 199.
Manchester, 189, 193, 197.
Manchester, Bishop of, 197-8.
Manning, Cardinal, 92.
Marine Biological Association,

181-2.
Marriage, 30.
Marsh, Prof. O. C, 130-1,

142-3-
Martin, Dr. H. N., 126.

Martineau, Dr James, 92.

Mason's College, 157-8.

Materialism, 153, 187.

Maurice, F. D., 92.

Mauritius, 8.

Medals: — Apothecaries' So-
ciety, 4 ; Copley, 201 ; Dar-
win, 165, 237 ; Linnean,
211 ; Royal, 16, 20 ; Uni-
versity of London, 5.

286

INDEX

Metaphysical Society, 92-4.
Metaphysics, 152-3.
Miller, Canon, 104.
Miracles, 207, 209, 221.
Mivart, Prof., 112, 249.
Monte Gencroso, 204.
Morlcy, Rt. Hon. John, 92,

144, 210.
Mother, i.
Muller, Prof. Johannes, 5, 13,

I7» 31. 43.. 245. 248.
Murchison, Sir R. I., 39, 46.
Murray, Sir John, 196.
Museums, 36, 134.

Naples, 114, 175, 176.

Natural History Review, 39, 55.

Nature, 39.

Newman, Cardinal, 208.

Newport, George, 16.

New Testament, 214-5, 216.

Newton, 199, 226.

New York, 130, 132-3.

Niagara, 131.

Nicholas, Dr., i.

Nile, IT4.

Norwich, 87.

Nottingham, 81.

Oken, 40.

Old Huxley Hall, 218.

Old Testament, 179-80, 186,

214-6, 220, 228.
Origin of Species, 42-5, 54-5,

71, 156.
Osborn, Prof. H. F., 236-7.
Owen, Sir Richard, 6, 15, 40,

52, 61, 239-41, 245.
Owen's College, 118.
Oxford, 50, 51, 52-4, 117,

135, 161, 222, 232-3, 234,
236.

Paleontology, 34, 107, 162-

3-
Paley, 148.

Parker, Prof. T. J., 142,

Parker, W. K., 122.

Pascal, 199.

Pasteur, 109, 204-5.

Pattison, Mark, 92.

Pearson, Prof. Karl, 132.

Pension, 178.

Philology, 222-3.

Philosophical position, 250-2.

Physiography, 37, 78, 91, 14O.

Physiological interests, 4, 245.

Plato, lOi, 145, 250.

Political Philosophy, 210, 213-

4-
Pollock, Sir F., 93.

Pompeii, 114.

Positivism, 231.

Pozzuoli, 114.

Practical Biology, iii, 11 5-6,

126-7, 134.

Prayer, 198.

Priestley, 120, 157.

Privy Councillorship, 226-7.

Protestant clergy, 91.

Pupil teachers, 192.

Rattlesnake, 6-1 1, 17, 65.
Ravenna, 175.
Ray, 199.
Ray Society, 24.
Read, Charles, 1O4.
Rede lecture, 172.
Researches, 5, 7, 8, 9, lO, 11,
17-22, 25-8, 30-2, 34-6, 38,

INDEX

287

39-40, 47-9, 55-6,61-3,65-
6, 67-8, 73, 74-5, 79-80,
83-4, 85-6, 89-90, 95-6,
107-10, 117, 122-3, 127,
135, 141, 150, 155, 158-9,
170, 172, 206, 218.

Retirement, 177-8.

Reuss, 186.

Reville, Dr., 179.

Rich, Anthony, 218.

Richardson, Sir John, 11-14,
15, 25.

Rigg, Dr., 104.

Rio de Janeiro, 8.

Ripon, Bishop of, 165.

Ritualists, 209.

Riviere, Briton, 232.

Rolleston,Prof., 1 15, 126, 161.

Roman Catholic Church, 91.

Romanes, Prof., 235.

Romanes lecture, 231, 234.

Rome, 114, 175, 176.

Roscoe, Sir H., 113.

Rotherhithe, 4.

Rousseau, 212, 252.

Royal College of Science, 177,
212, 218.

Royal College of Surgeons, 68,
94.

Royal Institution, 20, 22, 28,

31. 35i 37» 38, 44. 50. 59.
65, 79, 85, III, 123, 128,

139' 152, 156, 158.
Royal School of Mines, 24,47,

115' 135-
Royal Society, 16, 20, 24, 25-

6, 40, 46, 82, 99, no, 119,

171, 178, 181, 201, 237-8.

Ruskin, 92.

Russell, Lord Arthur, 93,

St. Andrews, 135.

St. Thomas's Hospital, 24.

Salisbury, Lord, 198-9, 236-7

Salvation Army, 217, 221-2.

Sand, George, 129.

Sandys, J. E., 151,

Saturday Review, 39.

School, 2.

Schopenhauer, 250,

Schwann, 112.

Science and Art Department,
75, 140, 191.

Scientist, position as, 245-8.

Scott, Prof. D. W., 177.

Scott, Dr. J. G. (brother-in-
law), 4.

Scotus, Erigenus, 195.

Selborne, Lord, 92.

Sidgwick, Prof. H., 92.

Siena, 176-7.

Skelton, Sir John, 129-30, 158.

Slavery, 77.

Smalley, G. W., 130, 250.

Smith, Robertson, 186.

Smith, Rt. Hon. W. H., 103.

Smithsonian Institute, 34.

Smoker, as a, 1 18.

Society of Arts, 136.

Socrates, 145.

Southampton, 7.

South Kensington (and see
Royal College of Science),
59, 115, 116, 133, 159, I77»
181, 201.

Spencer, Herbert, 43, 56, 63,
76, 187, 251.

Spenser, 227.

Spiritualism, 122.

Spottiswoode, Wm., 76, 170.

Sprengel, C. K., 35.

288

INDEX

Stanley, Dean, 92.
Stanley, Captain Owen, 11.
Stanley of Aldcrley, Lord, 161.
Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames,

93-
Stephen, Leslie, 92.

Strauss, 193.

Style, literary, 22-3, 222-4.

Suarez, Father, 112.

Sumatra, 1 1.

Swanage, 85.

Swift, 223.

Switzerland, 37, 68, 118, 181,

189, 201, 204, 235.

Sydenham College, 4.

Sydney, 8, 10, 1 1.

Teachers in Training, 81,116.
Tenby, 30.
Tennyson, 92, 227.
Theology, critical, 175-6, 179-

81, 184-7, 193-8, 206-9,

214-7, 219-21.
Thomson, Archbishop, 88-9,

92.
Thomson, Joseph, 124-5.
Thomson, Sir Wm. (Lord

Kelvin), 94, 236.
Thomson, Prof. Wyville, 124.
Tille, Dr. Alex., 251-2.
Toronto, 15.
Torres Straits, 1 1.
Torricelli, 199.
Treviranus, 134.
Tylor, Prof. E. B., 246.
Tyndall, Prof. John, 18, 37,

39, 46, 47, 68, 76, 80, 92,

124, 227, 235.
Type-system, 60-1, 11 5-6, 126-

7, 134-

i

i

University College (Oxfo
161.

Venice, 174, 176.
Verona, 174-5.
Vesuvius, 115.
Victory, 6.

Virchow, Prof., 7-8.
Vivisection, 125-6, 136, 14. ^
Von Baer, 20, 31, 38, 43, Z
71,^245, 248. 4,

Von Siebold, 18.

Wace, Dr., 205-6. I

Wales, 30, 58, 174, 218.
Wales, Prince of, 164, 172. i,
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 42, 1 1

237. 247.
Walpole, Sir Spencer, 159-6^
Ward, Humphry, 199.
Ward, Mrs Humphry, 207.
Ward, Dr. W. G., 92, 93.
Ward, Wilfred, 227.
Weismann, Prof., 240.
Wellhausen, 186.
Westlake, John, Q.C., 249,
Wilberforce, Bishop, 52-3, 112.
Willoughby, 199.
Wolff, C. F., 42, 59.
Working-classes, interest in,

4, 202, 249-50.
Working-men's College, 86,

157.
Worthing, 218.

X Club, 76, 170, 202, 227.

York, 162.

Zoological Gardens, 153.

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